Prisoner
by GinFics
Summary: They don't know how they got there, but they're all they have now. What will happen when forced to coexist? DMHG, 6th year, pre HBP and DH
1. Prologue

**Warning: The first half of this story hasn't been edited since the author was in their late teens/early 20s. Writing quality is not the best. Second half was finished in the last few years. Hoping to come back and rewrite the first half one day.**

 **Chapter 1** : Prologue

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 _Her eyes opened slowly, "You!" she exclaimed in the strongest voice she could._

 _His eyes drifted over to the form lying broken on the ground, "You can't blame me for this; you're not the only prisoner."_

 _"Why am I here?" she tried to sit up but found she was too weak._

 _"I don't even know why I'm here, Granger…" he paused for a moment, "And I don't really know where here is."_

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It was August 31st as Hermione sat packing her trunk with Harry and Ron at the Burrow.

"It's been a short summer," Ron sighed.

"Maybe for you it has," Harry said, rummaging around the floor for his broom servicing kit, which had been put to much use in the past few weeks.

Harry had been very moody that whole summer, to which Hermione and Ron were quite understanding, since Harry had lost his godfather at the end of the previous year.

Hermione cleared her throat uncertainly, "Well it will be nice to be back at Hogwarts with everyone, won't it?"

"I guess," Harry said.

Hermione and Ron shared a look and went back to packing their things.

"Dinner's ready!" Mrs. Weasley called up the stairs.

"We'll be right down," Ron called back as he haphazardly threw some more clothes into his trunk.

"You'll never be able to find some of that again, Ronald." Hermione remarked as she watched him.

"If I need it enough I'll be able to," he smiled back at her.

"Come on, we should get to dinner," Harry said, standing up.

Hermione and Ron followed him downstairs and everyone took their seats at the table. Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny were the only ones left at the Burrow this year since everyone else had already moved out to work.

"Where's Ginny?" Hermione asked as she scooped some potatoes onto her plate.

"I expect she'll be down soon, she was just finishing up some cleaning for me," Mrs. Weasley told her, passing the pitcher of pumpkin juice to her husband who had just joined the table.

"I'm coming!" they heard Ginny call as she hopped down the stairs with her arms full of clothes, "Last minute washing," she said cheerily, dropping them on a chair to worry about later. She took a seat next to Harry and started loading her plate with food.

Ginny's presence always eased everyone's moods because she seemed to keep Harry happy.

Everyone talked and laughed as they enjoyed their last dinner together before they left for Hogwarts in the morning.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco lay in the corner of his dark room staring at the ceiling, thinking about the events of his summer.

It had all started off so well. He would wake up late, spend the day flying around, or with his girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson, then at night he would attend Death Eater meetings with his father. Draco was as scared of these meetings as he was fascinated.

He didn't want anything to do with The Dark Lord, yet the magic He knew was mesmerizing to him. Draco would sit as far from The Dark Lord as possible but hang on his every word. Sometimes the punishments he would watch would make him wonder how he could learn it, even though he didn't ever think he'd want to use it.

Draco felt that he would rather watch and learn, than do. For the first month everything had been fine. And then everything just… fell apart. First his father decided that Draco's days would be better spent studying than relaxing so he would be shut in the Malfoy library for four hours in the afternoon. After a couple of weeks of this, Draco found out the Pansy could not handle him being away from her for so long and had been cheating on him.

Finally the one thread of his life that he was forced to hang onto broke as well. One evening he was sitting in the circle of Death Eaters watching The Dark Lord torture some innocent muggle when The Dark Lord turned to him.

 _"Young Mr. Malfoy," he grinned maliciously, "I believe it is time you proved your worth to me."_

 _Draco felt his heart rate increase tenfold as he looked questioningly back at The Dark Lord._

 _"You have been a good student, but I think it is time you showed me that you are capable of the things I expect from you."_

 _Draco felt his palms start to sweat as he stood up, "What is it you want me to do, master?"_

 _The Dark Lord walked slowly around the circle as he talked, "It is simple, this muggle will die tonight, but there is no reason for me to waste my time on it. It is now your job."_

 _"But…" Draco stammered, "Why are we bothering to kill him?"_

 _The Dark Lord turned to Draco, "He is a muggle and of no use to us. What will it matter? This, young Malfoy, is your initiation, and your chance to regain the respect your family once had."_

 _Draco saw his father look hopefully at him as he pulled his wand out of his pocket._

 _"I think that a little torture before he goes will be sufficient," The Dark Lord hissed._

 _Draco took a deep breath as he rose his shaky hand to point his wand at the defenseless muggle_

 _"Stop, please!" the muggle exclaimed, "Don't do this! I have a family!"_

 _Draco tried to block out the man's voice as he summoned up his courage, "Crucio!" he shouted._

 _The muggle writhed for a moment and cried out._

 _"Cause pain, Draco, he has no magic blood but stumbled upon our hideout, eavesdropped on our conversation," The Dark Lord said, noticing weakness._

" _I was just out for a walk in the woods!" The man tried to reason with him, "I will never speak a word of this, I swear, just let me go home!"_

 _Draco took a deeper breath and tried to steady his hand, "Crucio!" he said, louder this time._

 _The man screamed in agony as he squirmed on the floor._

 _Draco heard many people around him jeering and laughing; he felt light-headed._

 _Draco looked over to the Dark Lord, "Finish him off," he said, red eyes glinting._

 _He turned his eyes back to the man, "Av-Avada…"_

 _"Do it!"_

 _Draco tried again, and again, and again and he just could not get the words out of his mouth._

 _"Pathetic," The Dark Lord spat, standing up._

 _"Avada Kedavra!" he pointed his wand at the muggle. In a flash of green light all terror was gone from the vacant eyes staring up at him._

 _"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy, you have just confirmed my next plan of action," The Dark Lord turned from him, "Lucius, in the past few months your entire family has let me down after all I have done for you. In due time, you will pay the price. This meeting is over."_

From that point on Draco had been told to stay away from the meetings and had been ignored and abandoned by his father. At first, Draco would try to ask what had happened at the meetings.

"It's none of your concern," Lucius would answer.

Though Lucius looked collected from the outside, Draco would pass him in the lounge once in a while and see how miserable he looked.

This is why Draco had spent the better part of the last month locked up in his room, having his meals delivered to him.

Finally, it was August 31st as Draco sat, all packed, on his bed once again.

He had decided that when he went back to school he would retain his position as the ruler of Slytherin, since none of the others knew about that summer, and he would act as if everything were normal. After all, he had a status to maintain.

Draco fell into another restless sleep that night more than ready to return to Hogwarts, where he could escape the monotonous life he had been living the past few months.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Hello! I posted this story a long long time ago but was never able to finish it. Since it's been *ahem*... a while, I decided to go back through and revamp/change a lot of the story and felt it warranted being removed and uploaded anew so that anyone who would be jumping back into it can read it from the beginning! I'm still in process of writing from where I left off and editing my previous chapters, but after a bout of writer's block, I believe I know where the story is headed now. I hope you enjoy this story and I will try to get out new chapters on a regular basis!


	2. Sixth Year

**Chapter 2** : Sixth Year

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It was difficult for the four of them to find a compartment together, but eventually they caught an empty one. They put their trunks away and settled into their seats.

"I'm glad O.W.L.'s are over," Ron sighed, closing his eyes.

"Oh Ron, they weren't so bad," Hermione said.

"Don't start talking about school, this is _my_ O.W.L. year and I'd rather not think about it yet," Ginny whined.

"They really weren't too bad," Harry said, "I mean my grades may not have been top notch for some of the tests, but the workload wasn't too terrible."

"That's because Hermione did most of it for you," Ginny grinned.

"That's a fair statement," Ron nodded.

"Well either way, it'll be alright," Hermione said.

"I can't wait for the feast," Ron rubbed his stomach.

"Oh yeah? Your mum can't afford food anymore, Weasley?" came the snide voice of Draco Malfoy as he leaned in the doorway, followed by the unintelligent laughs of Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry and Ron both stood up and pulled out their wands, "Get out of here, Malfoy," Harry warned.

"What are you going to do, _Potter_?"

"Bugger off," Ron said.

"When did you find some courage?" Draco cocked an eyebrow.

"Obviously before _you_ found some brains," Ginny narrowed her eyes.

"Just leave us alone," Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Feisty," Draco said.

"Look, we don't have breath to waste on you today, get out," Hermione said, glaring at him.

"You know, Mudblood, the only thing wasted is magical talent on the likes of you."

Within seconds, four different spells were all aimed at Draco, causing him to fall to the floor.

"Take him out of here," Harry said, pointing his wand threateningly at the two oafs standing in the doorway.

Crabbe and Goyle hastily picked up the unconscious Draco and dragged him out the door towards their compartment.

"Bloody git," Ron said heatedly.

"Just forget it, Ron," Hermione said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Harry closed the door and they all sat back down.

"Well he hasn't changed much," Ginny commented, looking sideways at the others.

Harry leaned back, looking out the window as the train rolled along the countryside.

"I personally think we should just ignore him this year," Hermione said.

"I personally think we should curse him into oblivion," Ron countered.

"That could work," Ginny agreed.

"You know, I bet they've already inducted him into their ring of Death Eaters," Harry said.

"What makes you say that," Hermione asked.

"Just the way he struts around," Harry shrugged.

"He's too young, probably not powerful enough for… You-Know-Who," Ron said.

"Well at least it would give us a reason to be able to curse him," Harry suggested.

"No," Hermione said, "I'm going to try to keep you boys out of trouble this year."

"Good luck," Ginny snorted.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco opened his eyes to see Crabbe and Goyle hunched over him.

"Get… away…" he said slowly.

They both stepped away to give him some air as he sat up.

"You… uh… alright?" Goyle stammered.

"Fine," Draco said shortly, pushing himself up in his seat.

Just then, Pansy opened the door to their compartment. She spotted Crabbe and smiled, "Any room in this compartment?"

Draco's eyes narrowed.

"Uh…" Crabbe answered.

Pansy looked around the compartment and spotted Draco.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't see you here. How was the rest of your summer?" she said uncertainly.

"Get out," he said, his eyes burning into her.

"Look, Draco, I think we should talk."

"I don't think there's anything that needs to be said."

Pansy turned to the others, "Could you give us a minute?"

They both nodded, leaving the compartment faster than they'd ever probably moved in their lives.

"Draco, this summer was…"

"A nightmare," Draco finished, "Most of that thanks goes to you."

"You have to understand, I mean, I didn't even get to see you anymore after your father made you start staying home everyday… it was just hard," Pansy said lamely.

"No shit it was hard," Draco said, "But you didn't see me sleeping with other people."

"If you give me another chance…"

"To _what_?!" Draco burst out, standing up.

"To… to… I mean, it wouldn't happen again…"

"Save your breath," Draco said, his voice dangerously calm, "I know better than to believe that. Get out of my sight. We're over Pansy, for good."

Pansy shakily backed over to the door, "I'm sorry," she said breathlessly.

"No, you're not," Draco shook his head, "Go."

Pansy walked out, closing the door behind her.

Draco sank back into his seat and looked out the window. It was getting dark; they must be close by now.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Everyone waited patiently as the first years were sorted into their houses before the beginning of term feast. Gryffindor had gained a good number of new students.

As soon as the food appeared on the table, Ron jumped forward and grabbed everything he could get his hands on to throw on his plate.

"Haven't ate in a few months?" Ginny teaser.

"I'm not wasting the opportunity to gorge myself, besides, I've missed Hogwarts cooking," Ron defended himself.

"You mean the house elves' cooking," Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah," Ron rolled his eyes, "That."

"I can't believe it's finally sixth year," Harry said, "It doesn't seem like it's been that long."

"I know, it's gone by fast," Hermione nodded.

"Do you think we'll get a little time to relax this year?" Ron asked.

"If you stay up on your work then you will," Hermione smiled.

"So, no then," Ginny told Ron.

They all sat and talked for a bit while they ate, thinking about what the next year would entail.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"So… sixth year," came the voice of Blaise Zabini as he sat down next to Draco.

"Where've you been?" Draco asked, turning his glare from Pansy to face his best friend.

"Around," Blaise said, winking at a girl down the table.

"You missed the nice little reunion of Pansy and I."

"Ah," Blaise said, his face becoming more serious, "Sorry mate. What happened?"

"We had words- well, really I had words."

"Things are over for good then?"

"Oh yes," Draco threw another glare down the table.

"I told you from the beginning she was no good," Blaise shook his head.

"Right… so anyways, sixth year… you were saying?" Draco said, changing the subject.

"Got any plans for the year?" Blaise asked.

"Not really… just another year to me."

"Ah yes, with your big plans the Dark Lord probably has for you in the future…" Blaise joked.

Draco lowered his voice, "I don't think that's going to happen."

Blaise looked questioningly at him.

"Long story, but I had a rough summer," Draco said.

"I thought you may have since I stopped seeing you halfway through it."

"Father kept me locked up in the library for most of it and then… well I'll explain later."

"Right. So any run-ins with anyone other than Pansy yet?"

"Stopped in to bother the Golden Trio on the train ride," Draco shrugged.

"How'd that go," Blaise asked.

"Oh I got under their skin a bit," Draco answered.

They grinned at each other before deciding it was time to head to the dungeons to settle in.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"You called for me, master," Lucius Malfoy said as he walked slowly over to the hooded figure looking out the window.

"You have been of no use to me these past few months, and you know what happens to those of no use to me," The Dark Lord hissed.

"But master… I… I can do something… anything… please don't-"

"Oh I'm not going to kill you, Lucius," The Dark Lord cut him off, "But your family will suffer."

"Please is there something I can do?"

"You can learn from your mistakes. I will give you your task and you will ask no questions and do as I say."

"Yes, master," Lucius bowed his head, hoping that whatever he had to do would put him back in the Dark Lord's good graces.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o


	3. Paranoia?

**Chapter 3** : Paranoia?

Hermione woke up early the next morning. It was the first day of classes and she was excited to be starting some new subjects.

She jumped in the shower, letting the hot water take her away for a minute as she relaxed. Although she knew she should feel happy today, for some reason she felt on edge. As she stepped out of the shower, she tried to clear her mind and tell herself that it was just nerves.

She got dressed and went down to the common room to wait for Harry and Ron who, undoubtedly, were not awake yet.

She sat down in her favorite chair by the fireplace and looked out the window. It was a beautiful day out; the summer air was still fresh on the grounds.

She felt her neck tingle and she shivered; she felt as though someone were watching her. Hermione looked around the common room, but there was no one there. She looked outside and still didn't see anyone. Shaking her head, she closed her eyes again, _Maybe a little nap would do me some good_ , she thought to herself.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco lay in bed that morning looking up at the emerald green canopy over his head. He hadn't slept the night before but found he wasn't an ounce tired. He had gotten so used to not sleeping over the summer that it didn't bother him anymore.

Before he had gone to bed he told Blaise about his summer and about what had happened with the Death Eater meeting and with his father. Blaise had looked uneasy at the end of his speech, but Draco had cut him off before he said anything by saying he was tired and they would talk in the morning.

Now as he lay on his bed, he heard Blaise moving around outside his hangings and he knew that it wouldn't be long before he came to talk to him. He closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep as Blaise walked over to his bed and opened the hangings.

"Morning," Draco said, his eyes still closed.

"Okay, so I've been thinking," Blaise sat down, "This isn't good."

"Really?" Draco said sarcastically, "Because I thought maybe The Dark Lord would throw me a surprise party soon."

"Knock it off, Drake, seriously, this is really bad. Do you think it's possible that he's going to do something to your family?"

"Oh I think it's more probable than possible," Draco said nonchalantly.

"You're not going to do anything about it, are you?" Blaise asked.

"Nope," he answered, "Nothing I can do. There's no getting in the way of The Dark Lord's plans."

"Do you think he would… do something to you?"

Draco opened his eyes and looked over at Blaise, "I doubt it, I mean, it would be more useful to get my father, wouldn't it?"

Blaise looked uncertainly back at him, "I guess so."

"Right well we've started off the day well, I'm going to get ready for class."

"Just watch yourself, Drake," Blaise told him.

"I'll do what I can… hopefully it's not me he wants," Draco said as he walked out the door towards the showers.

Draco took a cool shower, hoping it would help to wake him up for the day. He felt odd today, but it was probably because of his lack of sleep and his conversation with Blaise.

There was no way The Dark Lord would waste his time on Draco, it was his father that had caused Him more grief than Draco. Still, he felt distracted as he finished his shower and went back to change.

Luckily he returned to an empty room so he didn't have to deal with talking to people.

He looked out the window; it seemed to be a beautiful day. He looked out into the Forbidden Forest and was unnerved to see the branch of a tree swinging as if someone had just brushed past it.

 _It's nothing_ , Draco thought, _Just the wind or something_.

He finished getting ready and headed down to breakfast, after which, he was sure, he would feel a little better.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Hermione?" Harry whispered, shaking her lightly.

Hermione jumped, her eyes popping open.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Harry said, "Just seeing if you wanted to grab some breakfast."

"Yeah," Hermione said, her heart beating fast, "Sorry, must have dozed off."

"Are you alright?" Ron asked as he walked down the stairs towards them.

"Fine," Hermione smiled meekly, "Just a little jumpy today."

"Is something bothering you?" Harry asked.

"Not really, I just woke up feeling… I don't know… just off I guess."

"Well let's go eat, classes start today, I'm sure that will make you feel better," Ron grinned.

Hermione got up and glanced out the window again. The sun was brightly shining over the grounds and everything looked calm; there was nothing wrong.

"Right," she grinned back, following them out of the common room.

" _Double Potions?!_ " Ron complained loudly.

Harry groaned next to him, "And History of Magic."

"Well I start Arithmancy today," Hermione smiled, looking down at her time sheet.

Harry groaned louder, " _Divination_."

They ate their breakfast and headed off to the dungeons to avoid being late. When they arrived, there was a line of people already outside the classroom.

"We're with the Slytherins _again_ ," Ron said moodily.

"It's sad they're still letting hopeless students take this course," Draco said rather loudly as he saw the Golden Trio walk over.

" _Ignore him!_ " Hermione whispered.

"Is that a new cauldron, Weasel?" Draco said.

Ron's ears reddened and he looked murderous.

"No, then?" Draco smirked, "Too expensive?"

"Back off," Ron threatened.

Draco's smirk widened, "Just curious."

"Silence," came the voice of Severus Snape, "Inside."

Everyone filed into the room and took their seats.

"Today we will be making the Draught of Peace potion as review from last year," Snape said, tapping his wand on the blackboard as the instructions popped up.

"Alright, I'll get the ingredients, Ron," Hermione said.

"Right, I'll… wait for you."

Hermione rolled her eyes and left to grab her ingredients.

"Hurry up, Granger, don't want to keep your boyfriend waiting," Draco whispered as he waited behind Hermione at the supply cabinet.

Hermione took a deep breath and bit her tongue as she grabbed her last ingredient and glared at him as she walked away.

Draco returned to his seat next to Blaise with his ingredients.

The class worked quietly for about ten minutes as they set up their stations and added some of their first ingredients.

"Alright, Ron you need to crush this moonstone into a fine powder, Hermione said as she stirred the contents in their potion.

"How many?" Ron asked.

"Four."

Ron crushed up the moonstone as fine as he could and added them to the potion. It immediately turned a deep shade of fuchsia.

"It should be yellow..." Hermione read off the board, brows furrowed.

"I crushed them as small as I could and I used five, just like you said."

"…Four, Ronald… four moonstones," Hermione said, taking another deep breath.

Draco looked over at their unfortunate potion, "Nicely done, Weasley, if you ever wanted to kill someone, you may have just made the potion for it."

"Maybe I'll try it out on you," Ron retorted, his anger mounting.

"Look, Ron, we'll just… um…" Hermione said, flipping through her book.

"Maybe you should trade him in, Granger, upgrade to a new model."

Blaise grinned and shook his head, _Here it goes._

"Shut your mouth, Malfoy, It's none of your business!" Hermione burst.

"Silence!" Snape bellowed, walking slowly to the front of the classroom, "If you cannot cooperate in the groups you have picked, then I will change them for you. Mr. Weasley, you will work with Mr. Zabini and Ms. Granger, you will work with Mr. Malfoy."

Hermione looked incredulously back at her professor, "But sir-" she said.

"Do you want detention, Ms. Granger?" he asked as he vanished both cauldrons.

"…No, sir."

"You will move to your newly assigned group."

Hermione picked up her books and moved them to Draco's table as she and Blaise switched spots.

"Don't mess this up," Draco said quietly.

"Don't talk to me," Hermione replied, "You do step one and I'll work on step two."

"No, you do step one and _I'll_ work on step two," Draco said.

"You are incorrigible," Hermione replied, putting their cauldron on to simmer as she measured the syrup of Hellebore to add.

They didn't speak until they had finished their potion, which had turned the perfect shade of light green.

"Perfect," Hermione smiled, putting a scoop of the potion into the vile.

"Bring it up," Draco said.

"Don't tell me what to do," Hermione snapped.

"Common sense, Granger, put it in a vile and take it up."

"You don't have to tell me what to do, I _know_."

"Then go."

Hermione looked at him sharply before turning on her heel and bringing the vile to the front of the classroom to hand in. She returned to her seat and crossed her arms, looking around the room.

Ron and Blaise's potion had turned an odd shade of turquoise and was hissing slightly.

Hermione smiled sympathetically at Ron as he capped up his vile and walked to the front of the room to hand in the vile.

"Upsetting, Weasley, you still can't get a single potion right," Snape looked down his long nose at the potion, "My apologies, Mr. Zabini."

The rest of the class finished up their potions and brought them up to the table. When everyone had returned to their seats, Snape addressed the class, "Most of your potions are average. Your homework for next class is to have a one foot essay ready to hand in to me on the effects of the syrup of hellebore in the Draught of Peace potion. Class is dismissed."

Hermione stood up and packed her things.

"It was a pleasure working with you," Draco said sarcastically, "Hopefully I'll never have to be that close to you again."

He turned and left the classroom with Blaise as Hermione's eyes burned into the back of his head.

"Well that was awful," Ron said as he walked over to her.

"I'm sorry," Harry said as he joined them with Neville.

"Let's just go," Hermione said, slinging her bag over her shoulder and walking out the door.

When they returned to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione went up to her room to drop off her things.

She froze as she reached her bed. Again she had the feeling that someone was watching her. She looked around the room and found it empty. She looked out the window and still, no one was there. For some reason the Forbidden Forest looked even less inviting today. A chill went down her spine and she decided her best bet was to be around Harry and Ron so she turned and went back downstairs.

The rest of the day went by alright, classes were all relatively simple as it was the first day and they returned that night to relax in the common room before everyone headed off to bed for some well-deserved sleep.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"You are priceless," Blaise grinned as they lay down on their beds that night.

"What?" Draco asked innocently.

"Potions this morning," Blaise looked over at him, "That was hilarious!"

"What fun is Hogwarts if I can't make someone's day miserable?" he smirked at his friend.

Blaise laughed, "Get some sleep, Drake I'll see you in the morning."

"'Night," Draco answered, closing his hangings and putting his hands behind his head.

He had the strangest feeling as if he wasn't alone. He looked around at the room; it looked empty. All of a sudden his hangings were drawn back and before he could say anything, someone touched him and he felt a familiar pull behind his bellybutton.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As Hermione lay in bed she couldn't help but feel paranoid. All day she had felt strange and even tonight she still felt uneasy. She turned over towards the wall and tried to get comfortable. It had been a good day and it was certainly nice to be back with her friends.

She saw a shadow on the wall of a person outside her bed. She turned over to see who it was, but before she could make out the person, something touched her and she felt a pull behind her bellybutton.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o


	4. Prisoners

**Chapter 4** : Prisoners

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco opened his eyes; he was lying on a cold stone floor. There was little light— just a line of candles along the wall, sitting on opposite sides of the small room. He looked around; there was no obvious door that he could see.

He heard something move in the other corner and instinctively reached for his wand. His hand groped his pocket uselessly; it was gone. It was dark so he tried to move closer. He found this task hard, everything ached and he groaned as he stood up. Using the wall for support he slowly made his way over to the figure.

" _Fuck_ ," he said under his breath.

Lying on the floor was Hermione Granger.

He sat down, too weak to walk all the way back to his original position, and leaned his head against the wall, closing his eyes. He had a searing pain in his side and his head felt like it was about to explode.

 _What am I going to do_ , he thought to himself. There was no door and no window, he had no wand, and at this point, he had no hope.

He heard Hermione shift next to him and he sighed.

Her eyes opened slowly, "You!" she exclaimed in the strongest voice she could.

His eyes drifted over to the form lying broken on the ground, "You can't blame me for this; you're not the only prisoner."

"Why am I here?" she tried to sit up, but found she was too weak.

"I don't even know why I'm here, Granger…" he paused for a moment, "And I don't really know where here is."

"How did we get here?" she asked.

"Oh I threw you over my shoulder and carried you," he said sarcastically.

"Cut it out, Malfoy, seriously, how did we get here?"

"If I knew, Granger," he said, trying to keep his voice steady, "Then I would be trying to get out."

Hermione's eyes scanned the room; there wasn't a _thing_ in there. No chairs, no doors, no windows, no paintings, just concrete walls and a cold stone floor.

"But why-"

"Listen," Draco cut across her scathingly, "I don't know why we're here, where we are, who brought us here, or how. It _wasn't_ me so I _couldn't_ tell you even if I wanted to."

He leaned his head back again since it was now throbbing harder than before.

Hermione opened her mouth; then closed it again, contemplating.

"Look, Malfoy," she said pointedly after a minute, "You can lose the bloody attitude, I don't know what the hell happened and I'm _just_ trying to figure things out."

Hermione moved her arm underneath her, wincing at the pain in her shoulder as she pushed herself into a sitting position against the wall. She breathed heavily, "Why do I hurt so badly?" she said more to herself than to Draco.

"I don't know what they did to us," Draco flinched as he ran his hand down his side to find where the pain was, "But I think I broke a rib."

"I'm guessing I shouldn't bother looking for my wand," Hermione said, not as a question, but a statement.

"I wouldn't."

"Why did they take you?"

"Haven't the foggiest."

"But I thought you were… well…" she stammered, trying to find the right phrase, " _One of them_."

"No," he said bluntly, "Maybe you shouldn't make assumptions about things you don't know."

"Oh because it was such a bold assumption without _any_ evidence, huh," she bit back.

"Don't act like you know everything."

"I never said I did," she said as she adjusted herself in the corner to lean her head on the wall next to her.

They were both quiet, absorbed in their own thoughts and, eventually, both drifted back into a restless sleep.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Harry woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. He had gotten a long night's sleep, putting him in quite a good mood. He looked at the bed next to him where Ron was still sleeping, his body haphazardly sprawled out over the bed and snoring loudly.

Harry grinned, not bothering to wake his best friend as he walked to the showers. When he returned a good bit later, he found that Ron had not moved an inch.

" _Ron_ ," he said quietly, trying not to wake the others.

Nothing.

" _Ron!"_ he said a little louder, shaking him lightly.

This earned him a grunt as Ron rolled over onto his back.

" _Ron!_ " Harry said shaking him harder.

"Hmph…" Ron answered, slowly opening one eye.

"Get up," Harry told him, "I'm hungry."

After Ron had finally gotten up and dressed, the boys headed down to breakfast.

"Have you seen Hermione yet this morning?" Ron asked with a yawn.

"Not yet, I suppose she's probably at the library or something," Harry shrugged.

Ron nodded, grabbing a fruit tart and adding it to his pile of food.

"Good morning," Ginny smiled as she sat down next to Harry.

"Hey," they both replied, Harry with a sheepish grin.

"I'm dreading my first day of Potions," Ginny said.

"Oh don't worry," Ron said sarcastically, "It's only Snape and he's only a little worse than he was last year."

Ginny sighed, "I suppose I should look forward to that."

"Have you seen Hermione this morning?" Harry asked.

"Nope, I figured she was down here. I didn't even think to check her room, she usually doesn't sleep this late," she said looking confused, "Is something wrong?"

"No, just curious; we haven't seen her yet today, that's all," Harry said.

"I'm sure we'll find her eventually," Ginny replied nonchalantly as she reached around Ron to get the butter.

The friends finished breakfast and headed off to their classes.

Harry and Ron were a few minutes early to Herbology and were surprised to see that Hermione wasn't there yet.

"Morning Neville," Harry said, as he and Ron set their bags down at Neville's table.

"Oh, hey guys," he said, flipping through their new Herbology book, "Where's Hermione?"

"I'm sure she'll be here soon," Ron said, looking around.

Halfway through the lesson, Hermione still had not showed up and Harry and Ron started to worry.

"She never misses class, especially when it's the first day," Ron whispered as he put down his quill.

"Maybe she's sick?" Harry replied uncertainly.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione shifted slightly, trying to find a comfortable position. Her neck was starting to ache from the angle it was forced to maintain and her back was not happy with the hard concrete.

She heard Draco curse a few times as he also tried to find a new position. Hermione finally decided to try lying down; she took off her sweater and used it as a pillow. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it was better on her back than the wall.

Draco watched Hermione out of the corner of his eye as she took off her sweater and lay down. He scoffed at her ability to try and make the best out of the situation. He crossed his arms and legs and closed his eyes again.

All of a sudden a figure appeared with a loud _POP_ in the room.

Draco and Hermione both jumped and tried their best to get to their feet.

The figure moved into the light. The first thing both noticed was the malicious grin plastered on its face.

"Who are you?" Draco said clearly.

"Young Mr. Malfoy," the figure hissed, "You're not in the position to ask questions."

Draco shuddered; he knew that voice.

"You _should_ know the reason you are here," he said directly to Draco as he stepped closer into the candle light, "If you cannot handle the tasks I give you then _you are no use to me_ … and you know what happens to those people."

"But why me?" Draco asked, "Why not my father?"

"He can be more useful to me than you can. He is currently out doing just that at this moment."

"Why am I here?" Hermione finally found her voice; she also knew who stood in that very room with them.

"You?" Lord Voldemort spat, "You are a Mudblood who deserves to be here. You are one of Harry Potter's best friends. _You_ … are useful to me."

"They'll come looking for us," Hermione said strongly.

Voldemort stepped closer to her, "You're lucky I don't kill you right now," he said to himself, " _Crucio_ "

Hermione screamed as she fell to her knees and shook violently.

Even though there was no smile on his face, Voldemort's eyes glinted as he watched her pain; He felt powerful. After a minute he took the curse off.

"They won't be looking for you for quite a while, silly girl." The grin returned to his face as he took a few steps back to address both of them, "For now you will live as my plan goes into action. Neither of you should get your hopes up for a hero."

With one last menacing look, he vanished with another _POP_.

Draco looked over at Hermione who was still on the ground, shaking. He averted his eyes and sat back down against the wall. He heard quiet sobs coming from the corner and rolled his eyes, _I've had worse curses thrown at me_.

Hermione hugged her knees to her chest as she sat in the corner, "Wh-what did he mean… th-they won't be l-looking for us?" she asked.

"I don't know," Draco answered, annoyed.

"They will," she said quietly, "I know they will."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Later that night in the common room, Harry and Ron sat near the fireplace with concerned looks on their faces.

Finally, Ginny stepped through the portrait hole and walked over to them.

"Hey," she smiled.

"Thank the gods you're here!" Harry jumped up.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"We still haven't seen Hermione," Ron answered, "Do you think you could go check upstairs, and if she's there, ask her to come down?"

"Sure," Ginny said, furrowing her eyebrows before heading up the stairs.

Harry and Ron sat down for a few nail-biting minutes before Ginny came back down the stairs, "She says she'll be right down."


	5. The Plan

**Chapter 5** : The Plan

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 _"We still haven't seen Hermione," Ron answered, "Do you think you could go check upstairs and if she's there, ask her to come down?"_

 _"Sure," Ginny said, furrowing her eyebrows before heading up the stairs._

 _Harry and Ron sat down for a few nail-biting minutes before Ginny came back down the stairs, "She says she'll be right down."_

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The three friends sat down, looking both relieved and confused.

Up in the girls' dormitory sat someone who looked exactly like Hermione and sounded exactly like Hermione, but was not. Bellatrix Lestrange looked at her reflection in the mirror and cringed at the face staring back at her.

 _I look like a Mudblood_ , she thought to herself with pity.

She got up and took one more disgusted glance in the mirror before closing her eyes and composing herself; this was going to take one hell of an actress.

She walked out of the dormitory going over the things she had been watching Hermione do in the last month that she had been following her. She held her head high and walked lightly down the stairs to the common room.

"Hermione!" Harry said, standing up, "Where have you been, we've been worried about you!"

"I'm so sorry to worry you all," Bellatrix said sweetly, "I'm afraid I've felt terrible all day."

"Are you feeling better?" Ron asked, also standing up.

"I'm feeling a bit better now, you can all sit back down," she gave them a weak attempt at a smile as everyone took their seats again.

Bellatrix walked over to the seat closest to the window and sat down.

"You can have my seat if you like," Ron offered.

"No I'm fine, thank you," Bellatrix said, "I have a seat."

"Well… I know…" Ron stammered, "I just know that you don't usually like sitting by that window because it's drafty."

"Oh… I'm just a bit warm, that's all," she replied.

Ron nodded and everyone settled down.

"So how did classes go today, did I miss anything important?" Bellatrix asked, trying to sound overly interested.

"Oh it was the same first day talks we get every year," Harry shrugged.

"Well I'm glad I didn't miss anything then, do we have homework yet?"

"Of course we do, you know every teacher always assigns an essay the first day of classes," Ron said with a sigh.

"Right, of course," she said, "I suppose I should start those soon then, maybe I'll go do that now."

"But Hermione-" Ron started

"I just want to make sure everything's done right!" Bellatrix said, standing up, "I'm going to go talk to the professors, I do hope they're all still around."

With that Bellatrix swept out of the portrait hole and headed towards the dungeons with a scowl on her face.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Drake?" Blaise said as he walked into their room where a Draco looking figure was sitting at his desk intently writing a letter.

He didn't answer.

"Drake?" he said a little louder.

Still no answer.

"Draco Lucius Malfoy, are you alive?"

Draco's head popped up, "Oh, sorry, just give me a second."

"Who are you writing to?"

"I said just give me a second," the boy bit back.

"Alright, I'll be back in a while then," Blaise said rolling his eyes, "And you can lose the attitude with me, I'm on your side here."

Blaise set his things down and left the room.

Lucius Malfoy closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he looked back down at his letter.

 _My Lord,_

 _All is going well. Bella and I have successfully infiltrated Hogwarts and are in costume. The potion worked perfectly and I have been over my notes multiple times. Both Bella and I are honored at your choice of letting us help you with your plan. We will do everything in our power to give you the time you need. If there is anything additional either of us can do, please let me know and we will be there._

 _I am currently heading off to meet with Bella and discuss everything. We will update you on what is happening here once a week._

 _Your Loyal Servant,_

 _Lucius Malfoy_

Lucius signed the bottom and folded up the letter, putting a charm on it so that no one but the Dark Lord could read it correctly. He tied it to his Draco's owl's leg and shooed it off.

He then got up from the desk and lay back on his new bed. How hard could it be to act like his son for a while?

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Granger," Draco said.

" _Granger!"_ he said much louder.

Hermione jumped slightly and looked over at Draco who was still in the same position he had been in the last time she was awake.

"What?" she asked.

"You've been sleeping for hours," he said.

"Why did you wake me up?" she said pointedly.

"How can you be sleeping in this situation?"

"I'm not sure you understand how weak I feel, _Malfoy_ ," Hermione said, using all of her strength to sit up.

Draco watched as her chest heaved up and down with her deep breaths.

"But I can hardly hold myself up and it was just easier to sleep."

Draco's eyes snapped back up to hers, "Well I didn't think it was fair that you got to sleep while I sat here."

"You're a git, Malfoy, did you know that? You're a selfish _git_. You can't for five seconds just be a tolerable human being and let me sleep when the alternative is to be awake and think about this awful, torturous situation I'm in? _Worse,_ that I'm in with _you_."

" _Hours_ , Granger. I've let you sleep for multiple hours. But I'm going insane just sitting here."

"Then get up and walk around or something," Hermione glared at him.

He glared right back, "You're not the only one who is weak. I've gone through just as much shit here as you have."

"Don't start that with me, I know we're both in the same situation, and if you had been the one sleeping I would have let you sleep."

"Drop it Granger, did you even think that maybe I just wanted someone to talk to, maybe _that_ was why I woke you up?"

"You knew we would just fight, why bother?" she retorted.

"Forget it," Draco said loudly, "Just forget about it and go back to sleep then."

"Are you going to wake me up again in ten minutes?"

"Just go to sleep."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

" _There_ you are," Bella said as Lucius stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.

"I was just sending a letter to the Dark Lor-"

" _Shh_!" Bella exclaimed, lowering her voice and dragging Lucius farther into the room, "We can't talk like that here, Lucius, don't be reckless! We have to use code, we've talked about this already, you can't just-"

"Yes, yes, I know," Lucius said, "It was my mistake, it won't happen again. I was just sending an owl to _Him_ , before I came to meet you to let _Him_ know that everything has gone as planned so far."

"Right..." Bella said, "Well then, is everything situated on your end?"

"Yes, everything is set, I am just trying to get used to the situation."

"Well everything is set on my end as well," Bella said as she raised her chin and looked arrogant, "They didn't suspect a thing."

"Yes, well we'd better hope they don't."

"Is there anything we need to do?" Bellatrix asked.

"His orders were to take the potion today and give everyone a glimpse that the Mudblood and Draco are still here," Lucius said. "And then we update _Him_ once a week to discuss anything we've heard, especially what you've heard from the Golden Trio. We'll begin the other part of our task tomorrow. Yours is first so let me know what happens and we'll go from there."

"Right," Bellatrix nodded, "We just have to remember, we hate each other."

"Yes, well that won't be too hard, we've been watching them long enough to know what we can and can't do."

"Alright, well I guess that's everything for tonight then. Let's meet again after my first _class_ , for a quick debrief?"

Lucius agreed, opening the door for Bellatrix and they both left the room, "I'll see you around. Contact me if you need anything," Lucius said with a nod as they headed off in different directions.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione sat looking around the room. The candles had melted down some and the light had dimmed. She shivered as a wave of cold washed over her.

 _How am I going to get out of this_ , she thought to herself. The chances of escaping looked minimal and with only the presence of Malfoy, she doubted that they would come up with some crazy scheme like she was sure she would have if she was with Harry and Ron. She had never felt as alone as she did right now sitting on the cold, dirty floor with her enemy.

Malfoy had finally gotten to sleep and was snoring softly in the corner. She now realized how lonely and bored Malfoy had felt while she had slept and she was quite tempted to wake him. _You can't do that_ , she chided herself. It wasn't like waking him up would do any good anyways, they'd just argue again and he'd be annoyed at her like she was with him earlier.

Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could feel tears welling up behind her eyes and tried as hard as she could to keep them in. What if she never saw her family again, or Harry and Ron? What about Hogwarts, would she ever be able to finish school? She couldn't be stuck here forever, could she, with only the company of Malfoy? As hard as she was trying to stop them, she could feel the tears slip past her eyelids and roll slowly down her cheeks. Was anyone trying to find them yet? Did they even know they were gone? She sniffed quietly, bringing her knees up to her chest.

"What's wrong, Granger?" Draco's voice said groggily.

Hermione's eyes snapped open and she quickly wiped her face off on her sleeve, "Nothing, I'm fine."

"You're obviously not fine," Draco said shortly.

"What do you care anyways?"

"I don't, but your crying is interrupting my sleep," he retorted.

"How dare you talk to me like that," she exclaimed, her anger building, "You have no right to make fun of me right now! How can you be so insensitive—"

"Look, I'm sorry," Malfoy cut her off, "But I'm not in the mood for a fight."

"You should have just kept to yourself," Hermione said, burying her head in her knees, still trying to stop the tears from coming.

"Granger—" Malfoy started.

"If you're just going to make this more difficult then please, just stop," Hermione said.

Draco leaned his head up against the wall, "I know this is hard, Granger, I'm not stupid," he said in a quieter voice, "I just don't really know what to do right now."

"Our conversations don't really help much," Hermione shot at him, still upset.

"Then how about you stop coming at me," Draco suggested, irritated.

"Once you get over yourself, then I'll stop coming at you."

"Fine," Draco said, "Truce?"

Hermione looked up at him, not quite sure she heard him right, "What?"

"Truce?" he repeated, "If we're going to be stuck here together, we may as well stop making this more miserable for each other than it already is."

"Okay…" Hermione said uneasily, "Truce."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Hi All! Excited to see people taking time to read my story, it means a lot! I would love to hear how everyone is liking it, so if you have a minute, feel free to leave a review :)


	6. Truce

**Chapter 6: Truce**

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Hermione?" Ron shook Bellatrix lightly in the chair she was currently sleeping in.

"Hmph…" Bellatrix responded, turning her head away and groggily swatting at the offending sound.

"Hermione, it's time for breakfast… we've got Transfiguration this morning."

Bellatrix opened her eyes slowly, blinking a few times before she remembered where she was, "Right," she answered, "Yes, well I guess I'll go shower and get ready then," she stood up, yawning.

"Did you fall asleep down here?" Ron asked, surveying her disheveled appearance.

"Yes," Bellatrix replied shortly, _what did he think, she sleep-walked downstairs?_

She swept past him and up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

"Morning," Harry said as he walked down the stairs, "Was that Hermione?"

"Yeah," Ron said, looking confused.

"Must have been up late doing homework," Harry shrugged.

"I guess so," Ron agreed as they pulled out their books to do some last minute work on their Divination assignment before Hermione returned.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"So what do you think he wants from us?" Hermione asked as she sat back against the wall again, still on the opposite side of the room as Draco.

"Well, my best guess is that we're bait, but I don't really see how that can be right, seeing how the Dark Lord said no one would be looking for us…" His sentence drifted off and he stared at the ceiling for a few minutes as they both became lost in their own thoughts.

Hermione's voice finally broke the silence, "Do you think he wants us for information?"

"Not really much we can give him that he couldn't have found out otherwise unless there's something about Potter that only you would know," Draco sighed.

"Why aren't you on his side?"

This question caught Draco off-guard and his gaze snapped from the ceiling directly to her eyes. She immediately noticed his eyes cloud over, as if shutting themselves to intruders. This look almost frightened her.

"Sorry, it wasn't supposed to be a big question, but as I told you earlier, it's not a bold assumption that you would be on his side, so I was just curious why you're not."

Draco looked at her carefully for a few more moments before looking away, "It really wasn't my choice."

"How so?" Hermione asked tentatively.

Draco surveyed her again; she could almost see the battle raging inside his head.

"I was on his side," he said, his eyes boring into hers, "but I couldn't cut it."

He looked away from her again; she could tell he felt embarrassed with himself.

"It's what I was brought up for, being a Death Eater. But when it came down to it, I just couldn't be a killer," he almost sounded defensive now.

"That's not a bad thing, Malfoy," Hermione said, in a much softer voice then she could ever remember using around him.

Draco shrugged, looking pointedly in the opposite direction.

"Are you really ashamed of not being able to kill someone?"

"No," Draco said quietly, "But I would never expect someone like you to understand. I didn't want to kill them, but I still should have been stronger than I was."

"Maybe you were being stronger by not doing it."

"I _told_ you, you don't understand," he glared at her, "It didn't matter whether or not I killed them; they were going to die anyways. If it wasn't me, it was going to be someone else. It wasn't a matter of killing someone or letting them go, it was a matter of killing them, or watching them be killed. And not doing it meant suffering for my family."

"I don't think there are many people who would have wanted to be the one doing the killing. It shows you have some kind of heart to not be able to do that."

Draco just shook his head, "Forget it," he said, "I never should have told you."

"I just wish you didn't think it was such a bad thing," she sat up and hugged her knees to her chest.

"Drop it."

Hermione leaned back against the wall again and sighed, knowing that the conversation with Draco was over for now. They both sat there in silence for a while before slowly drifting off to sleep.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Oh shit," Bella muttered under her breath.

"What was that, Hermione?" Ron asked as they walked into History of Magic and set their books down.

"I said 'forgot about it,'" Bella covered as everyone around them pulled out their homework.

"Did you forget to grab your essay?" Harry asked, taking the seat next to her.

"No, I forgot to do it."

"You… what?" Ron asked, stunned.

Bellatrix inwardly cursed herself, how could she have forgotten?! The Mudblood would never forget a homework assignment, but it would make a good excuse to stay late after everyone else, "Must have still been feeling under the weather," she said airily, "I'll talk to Professor Binns after class."

Harry and Ron exchanged confused looks and passed their homework to the front with everyone else. They continued to throw Hermione inquisitive looks as the class droned on as she was hardly taking notes like she usually did.

When class was dismissed, Bellatrix jumped up with everyone else to head to lunch.

"Uh, Hermione, weren't you going to talk to Professor Binns?" Harry asked when he caught up to her.

"Oh, right," she said distractedly, turning around and heading back into the classroom.

A few minutes later Bellatrix emerged from the classroom looking frustrated.

"Is everything sorted out?" Ron asked.

Bella jumped, not expecting Ron and Harry to be leaning against the wall outside the classroom waiting for her, "Um, yes. I told him I would get it to him by tomorrow morning."

The three walked to the Great Hall, Harry and Ron talking about their upcoming Quidditch practice while Bellatrix pretended to look interested as her mind wandered.

"I've got to make a stop in the ladies room," Bella said.

She turned around, waving to the others quickly, and headed in the opposite direction.

"I can't believe she forgot to do an essay," Harry furrowed his brows.

"I know, I wonder if there's something going on that she's not telling us about, she's been acting weird," Ron agreed.

"Maybe we'll ask her later, when we get more than a few minutes with her."

They continued on to lunch, both wondering about their friend.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione could sense a set of eyes on her before she opened her own. She slowly turned her head to the side and met Draco's gaze.

He jumped a little, not realizing she was awake.

"What?" she asked pointedly.

"Nothing, sorry, just bored," he replied.

"Have you decided to be civil again?"

"I was being civil before, you just got on my case and I didn't want to deal with—"

POP

Draco's head snapped towards the noise along with Hermione's.

"Ah, it looks as though you're both awake, very good," came the raspy voice of the Dark Lord.

Neither moved a muscle as they watched Him walk slowly closer to them.

"I hope you are getting along well, you will be here for a while still." His voice dripped with venom as he made to move closer to Draco.

Draco, using the wall for support, stood up quickly, and in shock, Hermione mirrored him.

"You are certainly not the smartest boy, Draco," he hissed, "You realize, of course, that if you had been stronger, I had such plans for you; I could sense the power in your veins, but, alas, you disappointed me. It is a waste that you have to sit here with this Mudblood," he motioned vaguely in Hermione's direction without taking his eyes from Draco, "While others are sent to do the job you would have been perfect for."

"I was being strong," Draco said defiantly.

"No, boy, you were very weak, and you knew that."

"I don't want to be your slave," his eyes hardened.

"No, you didn't have the determination to be great."

"I didn't have the heart to be terrible."

"Ahh, yes… heart. You will find, one day I'm sure, that it will be your downfall."

They looked at each other for a few seconds, Draco with a look as cold as ice in his eyes, and Lord Voldemort with disgust.

" _Crucio!"_ Voldemort hissed as Draco yelled out and fell to his knees but kept himself from yelling out, too used to the curse at this point in his life.

"Stop!" Hermione shouted, running towards Draco.

Voldemort turned his wand on her, "Stay where you are, Mudblood. This in no way concerns you."

There were fiery tears in her eyes as she continued to run.

" _Punctum!"_ Voldemort flicked his wrist in a complicated movement.

Hermione screamed and slammed into the wall as she felt thousands of needles being stuck into her skin. She opened her eyes and saw nothing, but the pain was almost blinding and she slumped to the floor, gasping for breath as the curse was lifted.

"You should show respect to the Dark Lord," came the low hiss.

There was another POP and he was gone again.

The room was strangely silent as Draco and Hermione sat catching their breath.

"Are you okay?" Draco asked.

Hermione sat back against the wall, she was shivering, "I've n-never even h-heard of that c-curse," she stammered.

"I've never seen it before," Draco said, as he pushed himself up and walked slowly over to Hermione.

Hermione closed her eyes and absentmindedly rubbed her ribs, "I've never felt anything like it," she tried holding back her tears.

"Don't cry." It sounded harsher than he had meant it to.

Hermione opened her eyes to glare at him when she saw that he was half-propped up against the wall, "Are you okay?" she asked.

"Just weak, it will go away in a little while."

"Why don't you sit?" she suggested.

"I just wanted to make sure you were alright first, I didn't know what it was he hit you with," he said as he made to turn around to go back to his seat on the opposite side of the room.

"You could sit here," she said quietly.

Draco surveyed Hermione for a second before lowering himself onto the ground next to her.

She gave him a faint smile that he returned.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Bellatrix walked into an empty classroom and shut the door behind her.

"That took you an extra minute," came Lucius' voice.

"Binns is going to be a problem."

"Yes, I was wondering about that one earlier," Lucius responded, "He is a ghost after all."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** thank you so much for reading and to my reviewers, I love seeing your thoughts on the chapters!


	7. Still Dreaming

**Chapter 7: Still Dreaming**

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"So what are we going to do about Binns?" Lucius asked as he paced across the small room.

"I hate to say it, but we may have to just forget about him…" Bellatrix said, "If it can't be done, it can't be done."

"Do you really think that will be a satisfying explanation for the Dark Lord?" Lucius hissed.

"Well at least for now I think we should put it out of our minds," Bellatrix suggested, "We should go for number two on the list. This is why we tried him first anyway, remember?"

"I know," Lucius replied, "I just hoped that we would be wrong. Alright, well first on my list is Flitwick for me but I don't have Charms until tomorrow morning. Next on your list is the Ancient Runes professor."

"Okay, I have that at the end of the week."

"Then we will meet later at the end of the week and hopefully share our successes?"

"I'll see you then, goodbye Lucius," Bella smirked back at him and left the room.

Bellatrix walked into the Great Hall and scanned the Gryffindor table for Harry and Ron. They waved at her from across the room and she strode over to them, taking the seat next to Ron, and grabbed a roll.

"So Hermione what are your plans for the night?" Ron asked looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Oh, you know, probably just going to go to the library," Bella answered airily.

"Do you think you could help Harry and I with transfiguration later? We're having trouble with a few of the review spells."

"Oh, sure, I suppose if I have some free time I can."

"Are you feeling alright?" Harry asked her, looking concerned.

"Yes, just a bit tired," she shrugged, "I think I may go up to my room and take a nap before Arithmancy."

"But you've hardly ate anything Hermione," Harry said.

"I'm not very hungry," she replied, getting up from the table with a brief wave and leaving the Great Hall.

"I really feel like something is wrong with her," Ron said as they watched Bellatrix walk away.

"She's just not acting like herself at all," Harry agreed.

"No… she's really not. What do you think is wrong?"

"I don't know, but we're sure going to find out," Harry said as they watched the bottom of her robes go around the corner.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco drifted in and out of sleep for a few hours, his dreams as bad as his reality. He heard screams in his mind, screams of the few people he cared about.

 _The scene was different in his dream. He was not in a dark dungeon, but in a wide open field with tall grass that came up to his hips. He looked around frantically, eyes straining to see through the grass; to find what he was looking for._

" _I won't let you hurt my boy!" he heard his mother's voice in front of him; she must be close by, though he couldn't see anything as he scanned the ground. He ran forward._

" _No! No, go back!" his mother pleaded with him from her unseen position. He kept going, determined to get to her._

" _You don't understand, Draco, it's not me you need to worry about! She's there; you're going the wrong way!"_

 _Draco slowed, confused. He looked around again, unsure who he was supposed to find._

 _A scream pierced the cool air and Draco turned quickly toward the sound._

" _Help, please…" came the weak voice of Hermione._

 _Without a second thought he started running, as fast as his legs would take him, he sprinted toward the sound, no longer confused._

" _Please…" it came again, just as far away as the first._

 _He sped up, barely able to feel his legs anymore, breath sharp in his lungs._

 _He heard another scream of pain, more anguished than the first, and then there was silence. No, he thought, No, I can't be too late. His legs gave way and he fell to the cold earth. He tried to push himself back up but his legs were jelly underneath him. No, his mind screamed at him, No, she needs you, get up, go! Draco held his head in his hands; this was it, he had no choice, he could not let himself lose this fight. As though his life depended on it, he dragged himself up on his unsteady feet and took a step forward, he was so close._

" _Hermione!" he yelled._

Draco jutted awake. He had said her name in real life like he had in his dream. He glanced around, his eyes locking with Hermione's, which were looking inquisitively at him from his side. He looked at her and felt himself relaxing inexplicably. As he inspected her for another minute he noticed her teeth were chattering and she was holding her knees to her body.

"Yes?" she finally asked, brows furrowed, _had he just called her Hermione?!_

"I-you… you look cold, well, freezing. And your teeth are chattering," he responded quickly.

"Were you dreaming?" she asked, ignoring his comment.

"No, no, just resting my eyes, I could just hear your teeth, that's all," he lied.

"Oh," she said skeptically, "Well I'm sorry to bother your rest just because I'm cold."

"It's fine," Draco responded shortly, looking away. He felt such a mix of emotions, like she was suddenly important to him, but also she was the same know-it-all he'd been enemies with for years. He felt a need to be close to her, but a lingering annoyance with her presence. He felt protective of her in this prison, but he'd never had a conversation with her outside of snarky comments until these last couple of days. He glanced back at her, the way she was resting her chin on her knees made her hair fall loosely around the edges of her face.

Maybe he'd actually try to be nice to her for a day. It's not like there was anything else to do.

"What would you be doing right now if you were back at Hogwarts," he quipped, leaning his head back against the wall again and staring at the ceiling.

Hermione tilted her head towards him, brows furrowed as she contemplated his topic change, "Well based on the grumbling of my stomach I'd say it's about dinner time so I would be trying to gather Harry and Ron off the couches in the Gryffindor common room, where they were likely dozing off as I tried to explain the assignment I was helping them with," she sighed, tilting her head back to stare forward again, "And then if I felt anything like I do now, I would stuff my face with all of the treacle tart I could fit in my hands."

Draco let out a quiet laugh, "Big dessert fan, are you?

"Only at Hogwarts, where my parents can't remind me how bad sweets are for my teeth," a smile played on her lips.

"Are you close with your parents?" He asked, not sure why they would care so much about her teeth.

"Yes, quite close," she started running her finger across a seam in her shirt mindlessly to keep her emotions on the topic at bay, "They were so proud and supportive when they found out I was a witch."

Draco felt a pang of sadness for her being stuck here away from the people who loved her, as well as a pang of jealousy that she had such a close relationship with her parents. He cleared his throat, ready to change the subject again, "So are you and Weasel dating yet?" He asked her, feeling like he shouldn't care about the answer, but a part of his chest tightened as he awaited her response.

"No," she sighed again, "It's been back and forth for years I guess. One year I'll like him and he'll be distracted, another year he'll like me and I'll be distracted. It's been exhausting. With everything that happened last year with Harry's godfather, I think the two of us finally sealed our bond as best friends to team up as a support system for Harry. I don't think he fancies me that way anymore and I don't feel that way either."

Draco hadn't realized he'd been holding his breath and slowly let it out as to not bring attention to it, "Weasel doesn't seem the type to be very good with romance or timing," he smirked.

" _Ron,_ " Hermione rolled her eyes, "Will do just fine when he finds the right person."

"Gryffindors are too nice to each other." Draco stood up, stretching his legs again, "See, this doesn't have to be too bad, Granger."

She smiled at him, internally laughing at the thought of discussing her love life with Draco Malfoy, but she had to admit, the banter was amusing.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o


	8. Feelings & Old Habits

**Chapter 8:** Feelings & Old Habits

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

It felt like a few days had passed holed up in their dungeon. One 'meal' a day was delivered to them - mostly rolls and water, every once in a while a cookie would miraculously accompany it. They would see Wormtail once in a while when he popped in to relight the candles. Hermione would berate him with questions, but he did his best to ignore them and get in and out as quickly as possible.

Draco and Hermione had been cordial to each other ever since Draco's dream episode. They would chat when they got bored, trying to come up with interesting questions to ask the other to pass the time. The outward differences in their personalities made for some of the most intriguing, frustrating and, honestly, funny, stories and conversations they had ever had with another person.

Draco wouldn't tell Hermione this if his life depended on it, but he'd had three more dreams that she'd been a part of. Although he'd never seen her physically in his dreams, he could always feel her presence and a deep rooted _need_ to get to her.

As soon as he'd wake up, he'd think about what it meant, if there was some underlying reason he was having these dreams or if his mind was simply grasping at the only other presence in his life. He felt a strange connection to her after the dreams that didn't dissipate immediately. He wanted to pull her close and keep her safe. He would eventually shake the feeling and resume their normal routine of pacing the dungeon, taking turns picking the topic of the moment to discuss.

As much of a know-it-all as she had always come off as, he had to be honest with himself, she was incredibly smart, and not just in relation to school. She was very easy to have a conversation with, whether it was a debate they were having, or a simple Q&A on their lives. It was getting hard to deny that he enjoyed having her there at this point.

After a lively discussion on house elves, they settled back in a few feet away from each other to try and rest again. Draco fell soundly back into his dream world, dream-Draco determined to get to Hermione this time.

Draco awoke an hour later, head bobbing off the wall, "NO," he exclaimed, opening his eyes.

Hermione jumped next to him, "Another dream about quidditch?" she asked, re-positioning herself and rubbing her arms with her hands. It felt like the temperature had dropped while they'd been sleeping again.

He looked over at her, wishing his heart rate would slow down quicker. Here she was, safe and sound (sort of) next to him, "Yeah, quidditch finals," he mumbled, taking a deep breath.

"You'll get that snitch next time," she joked, looking over at him.

His eyes locked with her as a grin formed. He felt something new when he looked at her and he had to remind himself to blink.

"Hey I know it's freezing in here, why don't you come a little closer, I'll try to warm you up," he motioned next to him. It seemed like something a friend would say and they were probably some kind of friends at this point, right?

"I…" she hesitated, taken aback, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah," he said a little breathlessly, trying to keep cool.

She slid over in his direction, their bodies now just inches from each other. He slowly wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He felt her tense beside him as he ran his hand down her arm.

She gave a small nervous laugh and looked up at him, "I know we called a truce and everything..."

"I know how stressful and difficult this has been," he shrugged as if it were no big deal, "Besides, I can't let you get out of this the easy way by freezing to death," he gave her a playful wink.

She felt her heart speed up as their eyes locked. Any response was lost in her throat as silver burned into brown.

Draco pushed a small strand of hair behind her ear. He licked his lips subconsciously; he wanted to be even closer. _What was going on_?!

Hermione saw him lick his lips and swore she felt her heart skip a beat; why had she never seen how stunning this boy was? She swallowed nervously, biting her bottom lip. _This was crazy._

Watching her, Draco couldn't help himself anymore. Throwing caution to the wind her held her face in one of his hands and leaned down slowly, closing his eyes.

Hermione mirrored his actions, closing the remaining gap between the two. Their lips met softly, testing the waters. He ran his hand through her thick hair, it was so much softer than he had expected. Draco's head was spinning as they parted after a minute. Even the feeling of her breath on his lips was hypnotizing. He smiled to himself; eyes still closed, and leaned back in again. He kissed her more passionately this time, holding her as close to him as he could. Hermione responded fervently, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. She felt him lightly run his tongue across her bottom lip and opened her mouth slightly to him.

They kissed deeply, entwined together and careless. When they finally split apart, Draco looked down at her.

"Where did that come from?" she whispered quietly.

"I don't know," Draco said, kissing her again, "Those dreams I've been having haven't been about quidditch," he admitted, "I've been having this dream where I'm trying to save you, that my life depends on it, but I'm either too late or I'm woken up during my search… when I see you here, I'm relieved."

Hermione smiled, looking up at him, "Then why do I feel like this too… I wasn't having any dreams."

"How could you not?" Draco smirked, "Just look at me."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him, "Seriously?"

Draco laughed softly, "I know this is crazy, let's just enjoy the warmth and try to get some rest."

Hermione leaned back on his shoulder and closed her eyes, relaxing for the first time since they had gotten here.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Ron and Harry walked back to the common room after Divination one afternoon, finding it as empty as ever.

"Where is everyone these days," Ron complained, throwing his bag next to the chair he flopped down in.

"Well we got out a little early, I'm sure people will be up soon, most of the younger kids don't have breaks this early in the day, remember?" Harry said, taking sitting down on the couch.

"I guess that's some real evidence that we're really sixth years, huh?" Ron grinned.

"I hope Hermione gets back soon so we can work on Transfiguration before tonight," Harry looked towards the door, "We still have an essay to write tonight for Herbology."

"Ugh, I forgot about that," Ron groaned.

The portrait hole opened and they both snapped their heads towards it.

"Hi guys!" Neville waved as he crawled through, joining Harry on the couch.

"Hey Neville, how was your private lesson with Professor Sprout?" Ron asked.

"Really great!" he smiled widely, "She showed me her new batch of mandrakes! She even gave me a few of my own to research! I guess they're always looking for new uses for it and such."

"Make sure you keep your earmuffs on this time," Harry joked, slapping him lightly on the back.

"Oh yes, I've learned my lesson! They're really quite interesting once you get past their scream."

The portrait hole opened and once again Harry and Ron snapped their necks around.

Lavender and Parvati climbed through, waving at the boys and talking in whispers as they headed towards the girls' dormitories.

"Waiting for something?" Neville asked as Harry and Ron turned back to him.

"Just for Hermione," Ron said, "We haven't seen much of her lately."

"Come to think of it I haven't really either. But I'm sure she's just off studying, that seems normal," Neville shrugged.

"Yeah, definitely," Harry said unconvincingly.

The boys continued to chat nonchalantly, but each time the portrait hole opened, their eyes jumped to it.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco jerked in his sleep, waking up Hermione and making her gasp. She looked over at the boy next to her with his mouth wide open.

An odd sense filled her as she looked at him. She felt confused about how the events of the past few days had panned out, and somewhat nervous about it. How could this boy change the way he felt toward her so completely in such a short amount of time?

She slowly untangled herself from his arms and stood up, walking to the other side of the room. She walked the perimeter slowly, arms crossed and mind wandering. She felt so stiff from sitting on the hard ground. She longed for a good meal and some sunlight to give her some real energy. After a few minutes she felt light headed and sat back down a few feet from Draco. She closed her eyes with a soft sigh and shook her head, trying to clear her mind.

When she opened her eyes again she saw at the far end of the room two plates of bread. She felt her stomach grumble and gave in to her senses, walking over and picking up the plates.

"Malfoy," she said softly, setting down one of the plates to shake him.

"Hmm?" he answered groggily.

"There's food," she answered, holding the plate out to him.

"There's what?" he asked incredulously before realizing that by food she meant two rolls, "oh," he said less enthusiastically.

"Sorry it's not something more impressive, but at least it's something," Hermione shrugged.

"Right," he said coldly.

Another sense of nervousness set in as Hermione sat back down next to the less than friendly Draco.

"It's good you got some sleep," Hermione said.

"Heh, yeah, sleep," Draco rolled his eyes, "Did you get any sleep?"

"Yeah, for a few minutes," she said, "but I woke up a little while ago, I wish I could stretch my legs a little or something."

"Good luck with that," Draco said mockingly, the reality of their situation hitting him like a train again.

"Well I'm sorry for thinking something _so_ stupid," Hermione said, starting to get annoyed with Draco's hard demeanor.

"I was just saying there's not much of a chance of that currently."

"Well that doesn't mean I can't think about it. I feel like it's been forever since I've gotten fresh air and any kind of exercise."

"It hasn't been that long," Draco retorted, "we can't have been here more than a couple days."

"I'd say a week or so, maybe longer," Hermione said.

"Oh yeah? And why do you say that?" Draco looked over at her as he took a small bite of the bread.

"I just feel like it's been longer than a couple days, that's all," Hermione stated, finishing the last of her first piece of bread.

"Right," Draco said, "Either way, I'd say it's going to be a while before you get any of that again, so you may as well settle in."

"Oh and you don't miss those things?" Hermione said.

"Not really. It's been much longer for me since I've had fresh air and a nice relaxing day outside," Draco said darkly as he remembered his summer locked away in his room. The comforting feeling of his truce with Hermione was slowly ebbing away. He tried to push the negativity down a little, it wasn't her fault, but it lingered.

"I'm just feeling a little cabin fever I guess," Hermione looked sideways at him, reaching her hand out for his arm as a calming gesture.

"I think we're just going to have to get used to this," Draco put the last of his bread in his mouth and wiped the crumbs off his hands, subtly avoiding her touch as he tried to calm his mind back down, thinking about his father now.

"I just—nevermind," Hermione sighed, putting her hands back in her lap. Draco obviously wasn't in the mood to chat.

"You can stay with your daydreams if you want, but this is how it's going to be for a while: Bread, concrete, and darkness. You've got to stop pretending like all of a sudden you're going to stumble upon a miracle." Draco got up and walked to the other side of the room, his anger wasn't at her but she was his only outlet right now. After a few minutes roaming around the room silently, he settled himself against the wall opposite Hermione. He regretted his outburst, but was too proud to apologize.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Draco, you awake in there?" Blaise said as he walked into their room.

No sound came from inside the hangings covering Draco's bed.

"Drake!" Blaise said louder, but to no avail.

"I'm opening the hangings, at least I warned you," Blaise said as he pulled them back.

Draco's look-alike lay staring at the ceiling, hardly flinching when Blaise threw back the hangings.

"What're you doing man, I hardly ever see you anymore."

"Sorry," Lucius drawled, "Just interested in some time to myself."

"Right, well it's me. You can chill out," Blaise sat down on his bed, still looking at the boy across from him, "What's going on with you? I know your summer was tough but you're back at Hogwarts now and you still seemed like yourself the first few days back."

"Yeah, sorry, things are fine," Lucius said, remembering that he needed to stay in character.

"Did you have another row with Pansy?" Blaise asked, trying to key in on the problem.

"No, why would I?" Lucius said, unaware of Draco's girl problems.

"Ah, still not talking to her, that's fair. Is there someone else you're not telling me about?" Blaise tried.

"No, I think I'm gonna stay away from that whole dating thing for a little while, ya know, after things with Pansy," Lucius said, trying to act like he knew what happened.

"Right, I get that, we were all surprised that you actually dated her anyway. But I mean is there anyone you're going after in general right now? You seem preoccupied, I thought maybe you were working on a ploy or trying to figure out someone new to pass the time. Just trying to figure you out, Drake," Blaise lay back, putting his hands behind his head.

"Nothing's going on, and I don't need to focus on anyone else at the moment," Lucius said, learning more than he needed to know about his son.

"Alright," Blaise rolled his eyes, "Well we've got some free time, do you want to head down to the quidditch pitch and fly around for a while?"

"Uh, sure," Lucius said, knowing it would be something Draco would never pass up, although he would only consider himself mediocre at the game as he hadn't played since his school days.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione surveyed Draco as he sat across from her; he was looking away, his hands in fists wrapped around his knees. Why had he been so much different earlier? They'd been getting along for a few days now. He acted as if he actually cared about her, he kissed her!

Draco felt her eyes on him and rolled his own, "What?" he said.

Hermione considered her words, "Well, earlier things were a lot different between us and now you're across the room ignoring me."

"There's a lot going on in my mind right now that I'm not keen on sharing," he met her eyes coldly.

"So you feel nothing for me?" Hermione persisted, confused.

Draco didn't answer and turned his eyes to one of the candles that had just gone out.

A loud *POP* shook them both as they jumped to their feet; it was Wormtail.

Not making eye contact with either of them, Wormtail relit the candle.

"He sent _you_ again, did he?" Draco smirked, appreciative of the distraction from their conversation.

"I do whatever my master asks of me," Wormtail said, crossing to the other side of the room to replace the other worn down candle.

"Where are we?" Hermione asked suddenly, continuing her badgering of Wormtail, hoping eventually he may be useful.

"In a dungeon," Wormtail said simply, " _Incendio!_ " he muttered under his breath as a new flame burst into life.

"How do you get in and out when there's no door?" Hermione said.

"It's a spell, obviously," Draco shot at her.

"Only his most loyal servants know it," Wormtail boasted.

"Why aren't our friends looking for us?" Hermione said.

"Because you're not missing," Wormtail grinned before disapparating from the room.

"Did you think he was going to let us go or something?" Draco said sardonically.

"Wormtail is weak, I think with enough prodding he could let something slip," Hermione said.

"He might be weak, but he's not stupid," Draco shook his head, "The Dark Lord knows everything, you don't make mistakes like that."

They both sat back down, neither wanting to talk anymore, and drifted into uneasy rests.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Happy Monday! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, it was a hot one over here! I wanted to get out a new chapter for you to start the week, hope you enjoyed it :)


	9. Tensions

**Chapter 9:** Tensions

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Half an hour after most of the sixth and seventh year Gryffindors had returned to the tower for break, Bellatrix finally crawled through the portrait hole looking distracted.

"Hermione!" Ron called as soon as he saw her.

Bellatrix walked towards the staircase to the dormitory, deep in thought.

"Hermione!" Harry said, jumping off from the couch and catching her shoulder.

Bellatrix jumped slightly and looked around, "Oh, hi Harry," she said in a fakely sweet voice, "I'm going to put my bag down and I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Alright," Harry said, standing there awkwardly after she walked away and looking back at Ron with furrowed brows.

A few minutes later Bellatrix came back down, sitting in the unoccupied chair across from them next to the window.

"Do you have a few minutes to help us with Transfiguration?" Ron asked hesitantly.

"Sure, what are you having trouble with?" Bellatrix asked patiently.

For the next hour she went over multiple transfiguration skills with Harry and Ron and read over and corrected their essays on animal to animal transfigurations, (although it was not as well corrected as it would have been if the real Hermione had read it over).

"Alright I have some work to finish up before Ancient Runes this evening," Bellatrix said, standing up.

"Okay, we'll see you at dinner, then?" Harry asked.

"Sure," Bellatrix said as she picked up her bag and walked back upstairs. She let out a breath as she closed the door to her room and lay down on her bed.

"Hermione?" came the voice of Lavender.

"Yes?" Bellatrix asked, trying to mask the annoyance in her voice.

Lavender pulled back the hangings and sat down on the edge of the bed, "It's just that I couldn't help but notice that you've been doing something different with your hair lately and I really love it!" she gushed.

Bellatrix bit her tongue to keep from rolling her eyes, "Oh, yes, I just decided it would be easier to deal with if it wasn't so frizzy and in my face all the time," she smiled.

"Is it a new spell?" Lavender asked.

"Yes, I read about it the other day," Bellatrix said, absently running a hand through her soft hair, "It's _sedo mollis_. I'll teach it to you some time, right now I need some rest though."

"Great," Lavender beamed, "See you later Hermione!"

Bellatrix couldn't remember the last time she'd had a girly conversation like that and was partially annoyed with it and partially relieved by the ease of such an unimportant matter. Sighing, she lay her head back and closed her eyes, she'd get to the Ancient Runes homework later.

After a longer than expected nap, Bellatrix hastily finished her homework just in time to rush down to a late dinner.

"Hey Hermione," Ginny said as Bellatrix sat down.

"Hi," she responded, grabbing a roll and filling up a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Running late today?" Harry asked. He, Ron and Ginny had come down half an hour ago and were nearly finished.

"Yes, but it's alright, I'm not too hungry tonight," Bellatrix said, taking a bite of the roll.

"Did you finish up your homework?" Ron asked.

"Oh yes, of course. There was just more than I expected when I started it last night."

"Have you been spending a lot of time in the library?" Ron glanced sideways at her, curious what her answer would be.

"Not too much," she said before realizing she hadn't been around very often, and it would be a normal thing for Hermione, "Well, I mean, a few hours every night, you know, the usual."

"This weekend is a Hogsmeade trip so we were thinking we'd all go together," Harry said.

Bellatrix cursed inwardly, "That sounds lovely."

"Great, we haven't seen you too much lately, I'm glad you'll come to Hogsmeade!" Ron breathed a sigh of relief; hoping things would go back to normal.

"Why wouldn't she come, Ron?" Ginny said quizzically.

"I-Well-it's-" he stammered, "I was just saying I'm glad she's coming," he finished lamely, moving the food on his plate around absently.

Bellatrix gave a half-hearted smile and finished her pumpkin juice, "Well I'm off to class, see you all later," she said as she picked up her bag and left the Great Hall without a backwards glance.

"I'm sure she'll be more herself soon," Harry said, "Maybe she's just been anxious about homework and being back at school."

"Ginny do you think you could try talking to her? Maybe it's—ya know, _girl_ stuff," Ron said.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "Yes, I'll talk to her."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Bellatrix sat through Ancient Runes class bored stiff, doodling idly in her notebook as Professor Babbling droned on. When she saw everyone packing up she quickly snapped back, putting her books away slowly. As soon as she was sure that everyone else had left the classroom she went up to the front of the class where the professor was packing up her materials.

" _Imperio!_ " Bellatrix said before she had the chance to turn around to see who was still in the room.

Her back straightened and her muscles relaxed.

"Turn around," Bellatrix said.

The professor turned around, her blank eyes looking at Bellatrix.

"For the rest of the school year, starting when I tell you, you will act as your normal self at all times. If you know or hear anything at all about Harry Potter, you will tell me after this class when there is no one around. You will also do as I tell you in the future," Bellatrix said as she paced slowly back and forth in front of her, "Nod if you understand me."

The professor nodded and Bellatrix gave her an evil grin, "Perfect, this starts now."

A little bit of light returned to Professor Babbling's eyes as she looked at Bellatrix confusedly, "Yes?" she asked, "Did you need something Ms. Granger?"

"I just came to hand you my homework, I forgot to pass it up at the beginning of class," she said, handing her the essay.

"Oh, wonderful," the professor said, taking the paper from her, "I'm very much looking forward to this year with you, I've heard only the best of things!" she smiled at her before turning back around to organize her briefcase.

Taking that as her cue, Bellatrix slung her bag over her shoulder and headed back to Gryffindor Tower.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Draco!" came the voice of Pansy Parkinson as Lucius was walking towards the dungeons after class.

"Yes?" Lucius asked, turning around and momentarily forgetting his supposed dislike for Pansy, and cursing himself for stopping to talk to her when he remembered.

When she reached him she grabbed his arm, almost as if she was afraid he would walk away if she didn't, "how are you?" she asked awkwardly.

"Fine," he answered, "What's going on?"

"I just _miss_ you," she blurted out pathetically. A group of Slytherins jeered at her as they walked by. Trying to regain her composure, she stood up a little straighter and put both of her arms loosely around his neck, trying to act as if things were normal, "I haven't seen you in so long, Draco."

Lucius removed her arms from him and took a step back, "Perhaps we can talk later," he said, feeling very out of place having this school boy moment.

"Hogsmeade?" she said quickly, "Come with me?"

Lucius never remembered Pansy pleading with Draco before, they had always seemed like equals when she was at the house, or he had heard them talking.

Stuck, Lucius nodded, "I guess so."

"Great," she beamed, "I promise Draco, it'll be a great time." She bit her lip and turned around, waving over her shoulder at him as she headed to her next class.

 _I should probably talk to Blaise to get an idea what I'm in for on Saturday,_ Lucius thought to himself, turning around and heading for his room once again.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco shifted uncomfortably, his eyes opening to stare at the wall once more. Sleep seemed a million miles away from this place, from this life.

"You're still awake too?" came Hermione's voice.

"Nope, sleeping," Draco replied shortly.

Hermione huffed audibly, "Can't you just be pleasant again?" she snapped.

"No," Draco said without turning towards her.

"Do you really want this to be more miserable than it already is?" Hermione persisted.

"Can't really get much more miserable so I don't care," Draco said.

"How are you feeling physically?" Hermione said for an attempt at conversation.

Draco didn't reply.

Crossing her arms, Hermione put her head against the wall and stared at the ceiling. After a few long minutes of silence Hermione stood up quickly. Draco mirrored her out of their routine when someone would apparate into the room.

"What was that for," Draco said sourly.

Hermione walked over to him, her hands balled into fists, "This is so unnecessary," she said angrily.

Draco looked at her coldly, "You may need someone to comfort you and tell you everything is okay, but I'm not going to be that person. I'm watching out for myself here."

"Don't pretend you don't care at all," Hermione shot back, "Why are you insistent on closing yourself off? What's it going to hurt to open up, or even just be friendly?"

"Not feeling anything is just easier," Draco said.

She couldn't read anything on his face, his eyes were guarded and his body tense. Whatever life and feelings she had seen in those piercing silver eyes before were gone; turned to ice and empty.

"Take down the god damn army," Hermione took a step closer, their bodies mere inches from each other.

"No," Draco told her again.

Their eyes met, her penetrating honey brown eyes forcing their way past his fortresses.

"We're all we've got right now," she said in hardly a whisper.

"No, I'm all I've got and you're all you've got," Draco countered in the same voice.

"Misery loves company," Hermione stated.

"Leave me out of your company," Draco said.

As they went back and forth Hermione kept inching forward until their skin was almost touching, their eyes embedded deeply into the others'.

"Try being strong for once and let someone in," Hermione breathed.

Draco took Hermione by the arms in frustration and spun her around so she was against the wall. He put his hands on either side of her face, "You don't know what I've had to do to be strong," he hissed.

"Doesn't seem to me like you've done anything," she bit.

Without thinking about what he was doing, he closed the small gap that was left and crashed his lips onto hers. It was fierce and full of the emotion he had locked away. It was anger, defiance and annoyance mixed with lust and longing. Her lips parted and he slid his tongue in to battle with hers. Hermione wrapped her arms around his back, digging her nails into his shoulders. The kiss was rough, so much different than the one they had shared before. She could feel her back against the cold wall, the brisk air against her skin, and the chill his kiss sent down her spine, but all of that was drowned out by his breath on her lips and the heat sparking from the passion between them.

Hermione let out a low moan through the kiss and Draco felt her grab a fist full of his shirt. Coming back down to reality Draco pulled himself away, letting Hermione go. She stumbled back a step, catching her balance against the wall.

"There are reasons people don't let down their bloody guard!" Draco yelled at her, now a few steps away.

Breathing heavily Hermione stood up straight and collected herself, "People also don't just kiss like that, Malfoy, that doesn't happen unless you want it to!" she yelled back. She could feel angry tears building up behind her eyes but she held them back.

Draco turned his back on her and sat in the corner of the room, still seething.

"You can't just do that!" she was so mad she could hit something.

"Then forget it fucking happened," Draco shot.

"You. Are. Unbelievable." Hermione sat back down against her wall, shaking.

The room was quiet once again, yet full of a lingering, heavy tension.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Happy Tuesday! Hope you enjoyed that chapter :)


	10. Suspicious Behavior

**Chapter 10: Suspicious Behavior**

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

There was a soft knock on the door as Bellatrix's head shot up from the letter she was writing. " _Prorepo litteris_ ," she whispered quickly, pointing her wand at the note and watching as the letters moved themselves around haphazardly on the paper. When it looked unrecognizable, she shoved it into the desk drawer.

"Come in," she said in as sweet a voice as she could.

"Hey Hermione!" Ginny smiled, shutting the door behind her as she came into the room and jumped on Hermione's bed.

"Hi, Ginny," Bellatrix answered, getting up to rearrange some of her books, hoping for a short conversation.

"What've you been up to the past few days? It seems like you've been busy!" Ginny said nonchalantly.

"Oh, I suppose," Bellatrix responded, "I wasn't feeling well for the first couple of days, still a bit off I guess."

"I think the boys are a bit lost without you around them all the time," Ginny grinned.

"Oh, that's silly," Bellatrix said as she walked over to her trunk and started rummaging through it.

"Are you seeing someone?" Ginny whispered excitedly.

Bella looked over at her, brows furrowed, "No."

"Oh, I just thought maybe you'd been off with someone else," Ginny said, disappointed.

"No, just trying to keep up on my studies and have some time for myself," Bellatrix shrugged, "You know although it's not my O.W.L. year, there's still so many things we have to learn and practice."

"I guess so," Ginny sighed, "So is everything alright with you and the boys then?"

"Oh of course," Bellatrix said with a convincing smile, "You know I was just thinking I'd like to go down and spend some time with them!"

"Great!" Ginny said, hopping off the bed and following Bellatrix out the door.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco and Hermione hadn't spoken for hours now, although both were awake; Hermione was pacing as Draco sat with his back towards her, his head resting in his hands.

"Won't you even look at me," Hermione finally said in an exasperated voice.

Draco rolled his eyes, unmoving.

With no answer, Hermione continued pacing, getting more annoyed. She was going to go crazy here; locked in a room with nothing to look at but the contours of the wall, nothing to hear but the wax falling to the ground every few minutes from the candles, nothing to even keep track of the time but the intermittent rows with Draco.

Starting to feel hopeless she sank to the ground in the corner, silent tears streaming down her face. It was almost as if the brief truce with Draco had given her some small form of sanity. At least it had provided an escape for a moment from the fear and anxiety that now seemed constant.

Draco sat with his eyes closed, listening to Hermione's light footsteps go back and forth across the other side of the room as he thought to himself that there wasn't anyone he would less like to be stuck in this room with. Her nervous habits and consistent need for conversation and comfort were starting to wear thin and certainly weren't something he needed. No, It just wasn't his personality. All he had to worry about was his own personal safety and sanity. Getting involved with Granger's _emotions_ was not going to help his sanity at all. Maybe if he ignored her long enough she would give up.

He heard the pacing stop and the quiet sound of her jacket sliding down the wall as she finally sat down. He peeked over at her from underneath his arm and saw that she had her head buried in her arms, tears dripping down onto the floor beneath her.

For a second he almost _wanted_ to go comfort her, knowing that he was making her more miserable. He immediately dismissed that thought as he shook his head with frustration, closing his eyes again to try and collect himself.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Hey Draco," Blaise said as he looked up from his Potions book.

"Hi," Lucius said, going to sit on the end of his bed, trying to figure out how to word what he wanted to say.

"What's up?" Blaise asked, noticing his expression.

"I just ran into Pansy," he started.

"What'd she do now," Blaise sighed, casting his book aside.

"Well nothing really, it's just that so much happened this summer that I've been trying to remember what I was most upset about with her," Lucius said, hoping he could pull off pretending he had any idea what was going on.

"Are you serious…?" Blaise said.

"I mean obviously I know why I was mad at her, I'm just trying to figure out which part was the worst…" Lucius let his sentence drift off.

"Probably that part where she slept with Marcus Flint, mate," Blaise looked uncertainly at him.

Lucius was inwardly shocked, but kept his composure, "Right but since then I just feel like there's been so much else, too," he prodded.

"I dunno, was the run-in with her on train really as bad as the actual fact of her cheating on you? I mean I thought you handled it pretty good, telling her to fuck off and all."

"Right," Lucius said.

"Please don't tell me you've been missing her or something," Blaise said, "She screwed you over, mate. I didn't even think you were ever that into her to begin with."

"No, of course not," Lucius retorted, "But she asked me to go to Hogsmeade with her on Saturday and I told her I would. At the very least I think I deserve an explanation for what happened."

"She gave you an explanation, a shitty one at that," Blaise looked at him incredulously, "You weren't allowed to go see her, she couldn't handle the lack of attention, and went to find someone else."

"Yeah, of course it wasn't a good explanation," Lucius mentally kicked himself, "I guess I just keep hoping there was a better explanation she didn't tell me. Obviously there's not. I just got caught up in the moment when I was talking to her I think. Ya know, like it was the old Pansy."

"You should get your head out of your arse or you're going to end up doing something stupid," Blaise said, shaking his head and picking his book back up.

"It was a momentary lapse of judgment," Lucius said through gritted teeth.

"That's what I'm here for," Blaise shot him a smirk.

Lucius lay back on his bed, hoping he hadn't looked like too much of an idiot, and closed his eyes to try and get a nap before he went to meet Bellatrix for a meeting.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Hi boys," Bellatrix said as she walked over to Harry and Ron, who were immersed in a game of Wizard's Chess.

"Hey Hermione!" Ron said, almost knocking over the board as he jumped up to greet her.

"Who's winning?" Bellatrix said in an attempt at conversation.

"Do you really have to ask?" Harry said with a grin, happy Hermione had decided to join them.

"Ah, of course," Bellatrix said offhandedly, "So anyway, how has your family been, Ron?"

"Oh, good," Ron said as he sat back down, "Mum sent an owl at breakfast today saying that Charlie had been promoted at work. It's crazy how long he's been away, Romania for four years and now Peru for the past two. But one of his studies just got published; I guess he was working with a really famous Dragonologist on the uses of Peruvian Vipertooth venom. I'm sure you'd know more about it than we would," Ron smiled at her.

"Wow, that's wonderful," Bellatrix tried to smile back at him as genuinely as possible.

"Does he have any idea how Norbert's doing?" Harry asked.

"He said he gave him to one of his friends to take care of when he left for Peru; gave him strict instructions to send an owl to Hagrid every month to let him know how he's doing."

They all laughed a little, Bellatrix awkwardly, as the rest of them thought about Hagrid's first dragon.

"And how about the rest of the family?" Bellatrix asked, hoping to extend to conversation enough to not have to think of another subject.

"Well dad said everything's been going alright at the ministry, Shacklebolt treats him better than Fudge ever did, that's for sure" Ron continued to catch the others up on the rest of his family as he and Harry continued their game of chess.

As it got later and Bellatrix grew tired of acting interested. She yawned loudly, "Well it's getting pretty late already and I wanted to get that Herbology essay done tonight," she said when there was finally a break in the conversation.

"Isn't that due tomorrow?" Harry said, looking at her, confused.

"Yes," Bellatrix answered, pushing herself out of her chair.

"You haven't done it yet?" Ron looked over at her with the same look.

"I've just gotten caught up with other work," Bellatrix countered, agitated.

"Right…" Ron said, "Well good luck then."

"Thank you," Bellatrix tried to soften her voice, "Have a good night, everyone. I'll see you at breakfast."

Ginny turned to the two boys as they watched Hermione climb out of the portrait hole, "I'm going to follow her."

"You're _what_?" Harry said, his eyebrows raised.

"Oh come on, she's been acting so different practically all year, I want to know if she's up to something."

"I'm sure she's not," Ron said half-heartedly, not quite believing himself.

"Well I'm going to find out, I'll see you guys later," Ginny said as she got up and headed off after Bellatrix.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

A loud *POP* made both Draco and Hermione snap their heads up. Wormtail was back, this time with a glass of water and a plate of bread. He went around doing what he had come there to do, pretending the others weren't in the room. He threw a backpack into the center of the room without any words and walked over to one of the candles which had almost melted completely again.

"What's in the bag?" Hermione asked in an attempt at a strong voice.

Wormtail glanced at her in the corner of his eye, fidgeting with his wand as he lit the new candle, still not saying anything.

"What's in the bloody bag?" Draco said louder.

Wormtail looked quickly over at Draco, his movements becoming more twitchy as he rushed to finish his instructions.

Draco got up and walked over to the bag Wormtail had dropped, dumping the contents onto the stone floor: a blanket, a change of clothes and a note. Hermione watched him as he unfolded the note, intrigued as to who was sending them something.

He read the note over quickly, looking back up at Wormtail afterwards, "Why did you bring this to us?"

"She told me to," Wormtail squeaked, shaking his head in disapproval for breaking his silence as he got the last new candle lit.

"Who knows where we are?" Hermione asked, to either of them really.

Wormtail ignored her, giving the two one last look as he went to disapparate. Before he could get the chance, Draco grabbed his arm.

"Tell us fucking _something_ ," Draco said angrily.

"Can't," Wormtail squeaked again, "Stay away," he said, pointing his wand at Draco, who let go of him.

With that, Wormtail quickly disapparated from the room.

"Who's the note from?" Hermione asked anxiously.

"My mother," Draco answered, "She said there's nothing she can do but she threatened Wormtail and made him at least give me something to keep warm."

"How does she know where we are?"

"I'm sure my father has something to do with whatever's going on," Draco said darkly, "At least my mother gives a shit about my wellbeing sometimes."

Hermione nodded, not wanting to put Draco in a worse mood.

Draco threw one of the blankets and fresh robes at Hermione, "Here."

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"Whatever," he responded. He was starting to regret pushing her away again, he could tell she was just scared.

She wrapped herself tightly in the warm blanket, looking over at Draco, who looked deep in thought.

"If you need anything, I'm here," she said, leaning her head against the wall and trying not to watch as Draco pulled off his dirty robes and threw on his fresh ones.

"Right," Draco answered, secretly wishing she would change out of her robes so he could get a glimpse of the body he longed to touch again.

They were both left with their own thoughts as they drifted into an uneasy sleep, Draco, being greeted once again with a dream of Hermione.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Hope you all have a great weekend :)


	11. Overheard in the Dungeons

**Chapter 11: Overheard in the Dungeons**

" _DRACO!" Her voice screamed in panic. He was running; sprinting as fast as he could towards her. Nothing else mattered but her safety. He didn't feel tired, or out of breath; he couldn't feel the muscles throbbing in his legs, or the sweat dripping down his face; he couldn't hear his feet crashing against the ground, or the other voices yelling around him; all he could feel was his heart pounding; all he could hear was her voice._

 _He slowed as he came into a clearing, 'She should be right here!' he thought, looking around frantically. He didn't know why she was supposed to be there or where he was, but she was supposed to be here, in the clearing, waiting for him._

" _You won't find her here," his mother stepped out from behind a tree, looking at him worriedly, "I'm sorry, son, they took her."_

" _NO!" he said angrily, "No, she has to be here!"_

" _She's not, Draco. I tried to protect her but there was nothing I could do. She's gone."_

 _A blood-curdling scream filled the air and their heads shot up._

" _Do you think—" Draco started, his mind working overtime._

" _It sounds like there's still time, but not much," his mother said, hugging him tightly. She stepped back, "Good luck Draco."_

 _He nodded, unable to form words and took off at full speed towards her voice._

 _As he approached his new destination, a low, sinister laugh filled his head and everything went black…_

Draco jolted up from his sleep, his heart still pounding. Standing before him was Voldemort.

"I see you've found time for a nap," he said slowly, walking towards him. Draco saw Hermione standing against the opposite wall out of the corner of his eye.

He felt relief, seeing her there, as well as fear and anger towards the wizard in front of him.

Voldemort lifted his wand, " _Crucio_!" he said, watching as Draco fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

"Stop it!" he heard Hermione yell, looking horrified.

Voldemort lifted the curse, turning his wand on her, " _Coangusto,_ " he said in a dark whisper.

Draco looked over from where he lay weakly on the ground.

Hermione's eyes bulged slightly and she gasped for breath. She fell to her knees, clutching her throat; he was strangling her. Draco's mind was racing; he had to do something. He tried meekly to push himself off the ground to no avail.

"You're going to kill her!" he said angrily.

Hermione was starting to feel light headed; the need for air was crucial. Her eyes started to cloud over; Draco's terrified face was the last thing she saw before she blacked out completely, falling to the floor.

Voldemort lifted the curse, his lips curling up into a sneer. He turned back towards Draco, "Would that be a problem, young Malfoy… if she were to die?"

"She's all you fucking gave me to keep sane," Draco said, " She didn't even do anything."

"You'll both meet the same end eventually," Voldemort hissed before apparating out of the room.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Bella," Lucius greeted her as she closed the door.

" _Draco_ ," Bellatrix raised her eyebrows at him.

"Right, _Granger_ ," he corrected himself.

"How's everything going on your end?" Bellatrix asked him, sitting down on one of the desks.

"Flitwick worked like a charm and Professor Trelawney will be next Tuesday after class," he told her, " _He_ wrote me earlier saying to spread it out a little more as to alleviate suspicion."

"I see," Bella nodded, "I got Professor Babbling the other day, so I should save Sprout for next week then?"

"Maybe a couple weeks, _He_ didn't specify how long in between would be a good idea, so maybe we should go one per week until further notice."

"Fine," she said, sighing, "This is quite different than I remember it, here at Hogwarts."

"Well, you're in Gryffindor, that certainly changes things," Lucius smirked.

"Yes, it does. All they want to do is sit around and chat all day and everyone is so upbeat and cheery. It's too much."

"Have you learned anything of importance?" Lucius asked.

"Well I have the where-abouts of every member of the Weasley family," Bellatrix stated proudly.

Ginny finally turned the corner where she had seen Hermione walk around a few minutes ago. She had stalled in case Hermione decided to backtrack, since she was, oddly, in the dungeons. Ginny put her ear up to the door, listening closely to see if she could figure out what Hermione was up to.

"Impressive," Lucius said, walking closer to Bellatrix, "You know I remember all the times we used to spend in this room together, Bel- _Granger."_

"Oh, now, I don't think Cissy would like it much if we were recounting old memories," she batted her eyelashes at him, her lips curling up.

"Safe to say she is far away from here," he whispered, running his finger slowly across her cheek.

Ginny pressed her ear harder, it was getting difficult to hear more than a couple words of the conversation, but it sounded intense.

"I've been waiting a long time for an opportunity like this," Bellatrix whispered back as Lucius swooped down and kissed her roughly.

After a few intense minutes Lucius pulled back, "We should get back, but I look forward to our next meeting. Tuesday night."

Bella watched him, breathing heavily, as he sauntered off, winking as he left.

Ginny, hearing footsteps coming towards the door, ducked into an alcove and peaked around as Draco Malfoy walked out of the room, straightening his robes and heading towards the Slytherin dormitories. She was so shocked she didn't even have the heart to move as Hermione exited the room a few minutes later, walking unknowingly by Ginny's hiding spot and off towards Gryffindor Tower.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

After a while, Ginny finally moved from the alcove, walking dazedly back up towards the Tower as well. Hermione and _Malfoy?_ How was that even possible? The boys would never speak to her again. Should she tell them? _No_ , she shook her head. She obviously had to talk to Hermione first. She would tell her what she heard and allow Hermione to explain.

The thought of it was just so outrageous that she couldn't wrap her head around it. What was there to even explain? Malfoy was their sworn enemy… and it was only a couple weeks into school, how had that changed so quickly?

Before she knew it, she had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Pilfering Pixies" she mumbled. The portrait swung open and she climbed through. She saw Harry and Ron sitting across the room and waved.

"Hey, Gin, come here!" Ron called.

Stuck between wanting to rush upstairs to Hermione's room and not wanting to seem off, she walked over to the boys, "What's up?" she asked.

"Ron was just wondering about your friend Susan, we heard she's dating Seamus now."

"You sound like a bunch of gossiping girls," Ginny laughed.

"Well it's just that Seamus has never fancied anyone before, so we're a bit interested!" Ron said, his ears reddening.

"She's a nice girl," Ginny said, "Very sweet, I can see why he'd be interested in her. I think they were placed as partners together in Herbology. I guess he was really nervous and accidently cut off the wrong leaf of a Tentacula, it nearly strangled him!"

The two boys looked at each other and laughed, "Sounds like Seamus," Harry said.

"Well I'll let you girls talk," Ginny grinned, "I'm going to go upstairs and read for a little bit."

"Alright we'll see you later," Ron said as he turned back to Harry, who gave Ginny a quick kiss before grabbing his quill to re-start on the History of Magic essay.

Ginny let out a deep breath, glad they hadn't suspected anything was wrong. She reached the dormitories and knocked softly on Hermione's door.

"Come in," she heard.

She walked in, closing the door behind her, Hermione was sitting on her bed with her Potions book open, "Yes?" she asked.

"Hey Hermione, I think we should talk. I overheard you and Malfoy talking down in the dungeons earlier…"

Bellatrix froze.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

As soon as he had the power to lift himself up and over to Hermione, Draco wrapped her tightly in a blanket and lay her head on his lap, and his own back against the wall. He stroked her hair as he watched her intently, waiting for her to become conscious again.

 _What were these dreams?_ He wondered, _And why did they make him feel for this girl the way they did?_ As he looked at her, he genuinely felt connected to her. Even the touch of her skin was intoxicating. He wanted to look deeply into her eyes again, he wanted to kiss her, protect her.

Draco shook his head, _What was he saying?_ Sure, he cared that she was safe, but only because her safety meant his safety at the moment. Maybe that's what the dreams were trying to tell him. He needed to protect her because they were in the same position, and if she died, he would too.

He could feel his exterior shutting itself off angrily; he was acting like some love-struck schoolboy, which he certainly was _not._

Hermione opened her eyes weakly, surprised to find herself breathing steadily, her head resting comfortably on Draco's lap.

She looked up him, smiling weakly. As she was looking at him, she was confused. His fingers were in his hair as though he had been running them through it, and he was looking at her, half passionately, and half coldly; his eyes looking like they were clouding over by the second.

"Malfoy?" she asked groggily.

Draco moved his hand to the stone floor, looking away, "You can probably sit up now."

She sat up slowly, her eyes never leaving him, "Thank you… for taking care of me," she said.

Still in a weird place, Draco gave her a half nod, wanting to both hug her as tightly as he could and get as far away from her as possible.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Fine," he said shortly.

"Can you just tell me what's on your mind?" Hermione asked softly, "I'm not trying to pry, it's just sometimes I feel like you care about me and other times I feel like you wish Voldemort would just finish me off."

Draco felt his chest tighten at the last part, "Of course I don't want him to _finish you off_ ," he blurted out, turning towards her.

When their eyes locked, Hermione saw genuine fear at the thought of it and did the only thing she could think of. She pulled him to her and captured his lips with her own. It was fierce, but slow.

Draco let it happen. She pulled him in and there was nothing else he wanted in that moment. Her lips were soft on his, she moaned, barely audibly, into the kiss as she pulled gently on his lower lip before he slipped his tongue in to meet hers.

Hermione shifted swiftly, straddling him. She felt a little light headed, maybe from the curse from Voldemort, maybe from the increased rate her heart was beating at.

Draco tried to snap back to reality, the angry part of him pulling on her hair as the other part of him ran his hands gently over her body.

Hermione breathed sharply as he pulled her hair. Ignited, she ran her hands through his, pulling on it lightly and battling back against him.

Draco could feel himself giving in to the passion between them. Angry at himself for letting this go on as long as it had, he pushed her off of him. She fell back against the wall, breathing heavily.

Draco stood up, giving her a dark look and walking briskly to the other side of the room to cool down.

Hermione, stood up and walked over to him, annoyed, "No, not this time," she said, spinning him around and crashing her lips back onto his.

Draco felt, once again, the passion wash over him and he picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he pushed her back against a wall, his hands fumbling around the bottom of her shirt.

Hermione bit his lip and he pushed his tongue roughly into her mouth in response.

His hands roamed under her shirt. Her bare skin was electrifying, so warm against the cool air.

Hermione let her nails grip Draco's back; never in her life had she had a moment like this. She felt an animalistic sense of passion where everything was spontaneous and new, and it all felt so right with Draco.

Draco moved his lips to her neck, sucking gently at her skin, wanting nothing more than to rip her clothes off.

Hermione felt him push his hips into hers and she moaned, tilting her head back.

Draco smirked, "You like this, Granger?" he whispered in her ear, sending chills down her spine.

Hermione didn't say anything; she simply ran her nails down his arms.

A loud *POP* broke the two apart, Hermione catching herself against the wall as Draco jumped two feet back.

Wormtail looked at the two suspiciously.

"WE WERE ARGUING," Draco yelled as a defense to the accusing look, infuriated and still full of passion.

Wormtail jumped a little, dropping a new backpack and setting down two plates of food before quickly apparating from the room.

Still breathing heavily, Draco and Hermione looked over at each other.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o


	12. Caught Up

**Chapter 12: Caught Up**

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 _Draco moved his lips to her neck, sucking gently at her skin, wanting nothing more than to rip her clothes off._

 _Hermione felt him push his hips into hers and she moaned, tilting her head back._

 _Draco smirked, "You like this, Granger?" he whispered in her ear, ending chills down her spine._

 _Hermione didn't say anything, she simply ran her nails down his arms._

 _A loud *POP* broke the two apart, Hermione catching herself against the wall as Draco jumped about two feet back._

 _Wormtail looked at the two suspiciously._

" _WE WERE ARGUING," Draco yelled as a defense to the accusing look, infuriated and still full of passion._

 _Wormtail jumped a little, dropping a new backpack and setting down two plates of food before quickly apparating from the room._

 _Still breathing heavily, Draco and Hermione looked over at each other._

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Both still frozen where they had landed after Wormtail's intrusion, a heavy tension filled the air. Hermione's mind was racing, she wanted to jump back onto him and finish what they had started, but she had gotten lost in her own world and forgotten that they were still in their prison, vulnerable to intruders.

After a moment Draco finally opened his mouth, "Could have been the bloody Dark Lord!" he exclaimed, his heart still pounding.

Hermione just nodded, incapable of forming coherent sentences.

Without another second's hesitation, Draco closed the gap between them and kissed her soundly, holding her shoulders in his grip before taking a deliberate step back. Before Hermione could even open her eyes he was across the room, leaning back against the wall.

"Right… so… not the time nor place," Hermione breathed, trying to regain her composure.

"You need to stay over there," Draco said firmly. Before she could reply, Draco locked his eyes with hers, they were not cold anymore, as they had been returning to on a normal basis over the last few days, they were almost pleading.

Hermione took a step closer.

"No, no no no," Draco said, a real smile playing at his lips, "If you come a step closer I'm going to rip every article of clothing off of your body and do every little thing to you that I have in my head right now."

"…Is that supposed to be a threat, or a promise?" Hermione finally responded, not sure whether or not to laugh.

"When I finally get a chance to finish… that… it's not going to be on a dungeon floor," Draco said, "And for some reason, you're driving me fucking crazy, so we both need to cool off and you need to stay put."

Hermione let out an exasperated sigh and collapsed against the wall, closing her eyes.

Draco grabbed the backpack that Wormtail had left for him and turned it upside down; A pillow, some Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, and a book called _Francis Finglehart's Whimsical Fables._ Draco cocked is head to the side at the last item.

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"Hold on," Draco said as he opened up the note from his mother:

 _Draco_

 _I hope you're alright, wherever you are. I just keep thinking of little things I could get Wormtail to deliver that give me a slight piece of mind that you're comfortable, as difficult as that may be right now. However, Wormtail says you're alive and that's all that keeps me going._

 _Also, I sent along the only book not relating to the dark arts that I could find in our library. I think I got it when you were just a baby._

 _Love,_

 _Narcissa_

"Well I've got some light reading for you," Draco said, sliding the worn book across the floor with a grin.

Hermione picked it up and chuckled, "What is this all about?"

"Apparently that was the only normal book my mother could find in our house… I'm not surprised," Draco said as he got up to grab a plate of food.

"Look, we even get sandwiches today! My mother must be paying off Wormtail or something."

Hermione's eyes shot up, "Really?" she said eagerly, realizing how hungry she was.

Draco brought her over the other plate and returned to his seat across the room.

Neither spoke while they devoured their meals, they had been getting one meal a day since they had arrived, and a sandwich was, by far, the most gourmet cooking they had received thus far.

Setting down her empty plate, Hermione pulled her sweater off again to lay down.

"Here," Draco said, throwing the pillow over to her.

"Don't you want that?" she asked.

"I'm not tired right now, still trying to clear my head," he winked at her.

"Okay, well if you want to join me…" she drifted off.

Draco smirked, "Can't get you all worked up again already."

Hermione rolled her eyes and lay down while Draco opened up a box of the Bertie Botts beans and fixed his gaze lazily on the wall.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Ginny knocked loudly on Hermione's door until Bellatrix answered.

"Yes?" She asked in a sweet voice as she gritted her teeth.

"We need to talk. Now," Ginny responded, walking into the room and pulling Bellatrix behind her. Ginny pulled the hangings around Hermione's bed shut as she sat down.

"I saw you with Malfoy," she said pointedly.

"I—you—what?" Bellatrix said, trying to buy some time to think.

"Is that who you've been sneaking around with?" Ginny asked, ignoring her.

"No—I mean, we're not sneaking around. He's… my partner. In potions. You can even ask the boys!" she responded, feeling a little relieved that somehow her and Lucius had ended up as Potions partners, apparently due to a row Draco and Hermione had on the first day of class.

"Oh yeah? Then why was he fixing his robes when he left the room. I saw how disheveled his hair was," Ginny crossed her arms.

"We were just fighting! You know I can't stand him. Always strutting around…" she tried.

"No, don't lie to me. I heard you saying how you were happy you had the _opportunity_ , and he said he looked _forward_ to seeing you. Tell me what's really going on," Ginny said, a hard look in her eye.

"Fine—" Bellatrix sputtered, "We're dating."

"How long?"

"Couple weeks."

"How?"

"Potions partners… we've had to spend a lot of time locked up in a room together."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because you all hate him!"

Ginny and Bellatrix sat staring at each other for a long moment.

 _Why do I have to deal with this,_ Bellatrix thought, partially ashamed that she had been caught in a lie already.

"Are you going to tell the boys?" Ginny asked.

"Please don't tell them," Bellatrix begged, "I will, I just don't feel like it's time yet."

Ginny stood up, "Fine. But I'm not covering for you."

"Are you going to stay mad at me?" Bellatrix asked, she didn't want any hitches in her plans to get close to Harry Potter's friends.

"Of course not," Ginny replied, her tone still harsh, "But right now I'm frustrated."

"Okay… well I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, I just wasn't ready yet."

"You shouldn't have lied, either," Ginny said, sighing, "I'm going to bed, we'll talk tomorrow."

"Goodnight," Bellatrix said as Ginny walked out of the room.

Annoyed, Bellatrix dressed for bed, sending an owl to Lucius quickly to let him know he should let up on the name calling a little bit and that she would explain the next day.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco repositioned himself again, his neck feeling stiffer than it had in days. He looked over at Hermione, who was resting quietly.

A loud *POP* filled the room and Hermione jolted out of her sleep as Draco jumped to his feet.

Voldemort walked pointedly over to Hermione, "Tell me his weakness," he hissed.

"What?" Hermione breathed, backing up against the wall.

"Tell me what you know. There is something about him that I cannot break," Voldemort said, his eyes gleaning with anger.

"I don't know anything and I wouldn't tell you if I did," Hermione said as loudly as she could, trying to hold eye contact.

" _Internum Ardere!"_ Voldemort roared, pointing his wand a Hermione.

Hermione let out a blood-curdling scream as she fell to her knees. She felt as if she were burning alive. The pain tore at her as she blindly groped at her arms, wishing to have the fire put out.

"Stop!" she exclaimed, "Make it stop!"

Draco ran towards her, but Voldemort flicked his wand and Draco flew back hard against the wall.

"Tell me something," Voldemort said quietly.

Hermione screamed again, crumbling to the cold stone floor, her head feeling as if it were about it burst. She could see the images in front of her fading, every inch of her on fire.

"She has nothing to tell you!" Draco yelled.

Voldemort lifted the curse and turned on Draco, "Vulnus," he brought his wand across Draco's cheek. The skin Voldemort touched split open, leaving a searing gash across his face.

Draco gasped, clutching the wound and falling back against the wall.

"Don't interrupt me, young Malfoy," he said through clenched teeth, "At no point will you be my concern unless you make yourself. Simply stay out of my way."

Aggravated, Voldemort disapparated from the room.

Blood dripped down Draco's face as his eyes darted over to Hermione, who was heaving in the corner.

"Granger!" he said, wincing at the pain that was spreading through his face.

She couldn't answer; she couldn't move; she couldn't think. She was so crippled from the torture she had just endured that she lay still in a heap on the floor, her mind moving in and out of consciousness.

Draco walked over to her, their eyes locking. All he could see was pain and true fear looking back at him.

"Can you hear me?" he asked slowly.

She gave the slightest nod, her mouth parting slightly, but no sound came out.

Draco crossed the room and grabbed the glass of water that was left by Wormtail earlier.

"Here, drink some of this," he said, sitting down next to her.

She weakly turned her head, her hand twitching as if to grab the glass.

Draco lifted her into a sitting position; her body felt limp and she gasped in pain.

Draco helped her to take a few sips of water before she pushed it away, "Rest," she said inaudibly.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Better," she answered, her lips only moving slightly.

"What… what did he hit you with? What did that curse do?" he asked, helping her to lay back on the pillow. Her strength was slowly coming back as she curled her legs and flexed her fingers.

"Felt consumed by flames," she responded.

Draco clenched his fist in anger, pulling the blanket up over her. Hermione closed her eyes, letting out a deep breath.

"Rest. Get your strength back," he said quietly, wiping the blood off his face and leaning back. He felt enraged and there was nothing he could do; nothing but sit on this dusty floor, his expression as stone cold as their dungeon.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o


	13. Detention

**Chapter 13** : Detention

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Early the next morning, Bellatrix rolled out of bed and went to meet Lucius to explain what was going on. She closed the door behind her as she walked into the Transfiguration room. Lucius was not there yet so she sat down on one of the desks to wait for him. She tried to sit as seductively as she could, her robes pushed to the side to show a sliver of Hermione's skin. She unbuttoned the top button as a last minute thought and then sat back, trying to look relaxed and cool. After another minute Lucius entered the room, a smirk forming on his face when he saw her.

"Good morning," she said coyly.

"Fancy meeting you here," he drawled, walking up to her. He placed a hand on her leg, moving it slowly upwards, "You wanted to talk business?"

"We've found ourselves in quite a… predicament, _Draco_ ," Bellatrix said innocently as Lucius continued moving closer to her, his mouth inches from her neck.

"Oh yes, we most certainly have, _Granger_ " he whispered against her skin. He placed a soft kiss on her neck before swiftly moving back, leaving her feeling like she could beg for more.

"Unfortunately, we have breakfast to attend," he winked at her, waiting for her to explain the situation.

She sighed heavily, "The Weasley girl heard us the other night, she thinks Draco and the Mudblood are dating."

"Did you tell her otherwise?" He asked.

"Of course I did but she didn't believe me… she heard the, a _hem_ , end of our conversation as well," Bellatrix elaborated.

"Ah," Lucius responded, "So it seems we're dating then."

"Yes but I begged her not to tell the boys, I still need to get close to them, and having the Mudblood date a Slytherin would not make them very happy."

"A fair point."

"But I thought I should tell you so you don't insult me as much around the girl, now that I need Ginny to believe they don't hate each other."

"I will work that into act," Lucius nodded, "I think it's time we get to breakfast, Bella, it's getting late."

"Yes, of course," Bellatrix responded, "You go, I'll wait a few minutes so no one sees us coming in together."

"Until next time," Lucius said with a final, lustful glance as he left the room.

Bellatrix watched after him, biting her lip, it had been so long since they had been together, she didn't know how long she could restrain herself.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco was pacing slowly back and forth in the dungeon, his hands behind his back. Periodically he would look over at Hermione, who was sleeping soundly in the corner. It had been hours since the Dark Lord's visit, maybe even half a day. Hermione had woken up twice, but was still too weak to do anything but take a few sips of water and carefully switch her position.

Draco's mind was currently stuck at Hogwarts. Had anyone figured out they were missing yet? It seemed obvious at this point that someone must be there in their place, but Blaise _must_ have realized it wasn't him… or at least he would eventually.

"Malfoy?" Hermione said quietly, breaking through his thoughts.

He walked over to her, sitting down, "How are you doing?"

"Alright," Hermione responded, using all of her energy to push herself up into a sitting position, "How long have I been out?"

"A while," Draco said, handing the glass of water to her, "But that's good, I'm sure your body needed to recuperate."

"What have you been doing?" she asked, feeling better than she had all day.

"Just thinking," he said, "Mostly about Hogwarts." Draco sat back against the wall, closing his eyes; he had been too on edge since Hermione had fallen asleep to really rest.

Hermione sighed, "Don't you think they'd notice… soon?"

"Yeah, I mean how long can someone else portray us without our friends realizing the truth?" he thought out loud.

"Harry and Ron are sure to figure it out," Hermione said strongly.

"Yes, I'm sure your little _boyfriend_ will come save you," he bit, annoyed that she was thinking about Ron.

"Stop it," Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Let's be honest, Granger, I'm sure you've been daydreaming about the Ginger taking you to Madam Puddifoot's," he didn't know why he felt jealous, she had already told him they weren't a thing, but he couldn't help himself now that the ball was rolling.

"Where is this coming from?" Hermione said, exasperated, "Like I told you, maybe last year," she allowed, "But it's safe to say I haven't been thinking about _Ron_ very much since we've been here other than the way I've been thinking about Harry… or Ginny."

"Right, but I'm sure once the distractions of torture are out of the way, it'll be all unicorns and rainbows for you."

"What is wrong with you?" Hermione said, getting annoyed with Draco's demeanor.

"I'm sure you could name a hundred things wrong with me, Granger, especially when you relay all of the stories from the dungeon back to your friends when we get out of here."

Hermione grabbed his arm and Draco looked over at her coldly, "I'm sorry, but did something happen while I was passed out, because I'm pretty sure before Voldemort was here, everything was just fine between us."

"It's all temporary, Granger. Every part of this is temporary," Draco removed her hand from his arm and got up, settling himself across the room, "Now that I'm reassured that you're alright, I'm going to finally get some rest."

Hermione's mouth was left hanging open as Draco crossed his arms and closed his eyes. Lost for anything remotely comprehensible to say, she angrily looked around for something to take her mind off of their conversation. She grabbed the book of fables that lay next to the pillow and ripped it open to the first story; reading was sure to do the trick.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Hey Hermione!" Ron jumped up from the Gryffindor table as Bellatrix walked over to.

"Good morning," she responded, hardly noticing him as she grabbed a roll and say down next to Harry.

"Are you still coming with us to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Ron asked, still awkwardly standing next to her.

"Uh, yes," she looked around, confused.

"Right, great," Ron said, seating himself back at the Gryffindor table, trying to act less awkward than he felt. He had no idea why he was feeling like this around his best friend again all of a sudden, maybe not having her around as much was making him miss her, as a friend but also somehow in a romantic way.

Bellatrix nodded, turning back to her roll and grabbing for the butter.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Oy, Drake!" Blaise called as Lucius walked up to the Slytherin table.

"Morning," Lucius responded, sitting down next to him.

Blaise lowered his head, "Pansy came looking for you this morning," he said quietly.

"What did she want?" Lucius asked.

"She said she dropped by to see what time you wanted to leave for Hogsmeade on Saturday… she looked pretty pleased with herself," he rolled her eyes.

"Oh," Lucius said, forgetting about his prior obligation.

"Are you planning on standing her up?" Blaise asked, "I mean honestly I wouldn't blame you."

"No," Lucius said with a shrug, "No I'm just going to see what she wants." He started thinking about how to traverse going to Hogsmeade with Pansy, but also being "in a secret relationship" with Granger and also being a grown man on a task from the Dark Lord.

Blaise shook his head, "I don't know what you're on about, but whatever you want, mate. Let me know how it goes."

The boys continued eating in silence until it was time for class. The Great Hall cleared and Dumbledore looked on thoughtfully as his students dispersed, his gaze set mostly on Draco and Hermione.

The sixth years waited outside of the transfiguration room for Professor McGonagall before class started.

"Ron, I just don't think the Canons are going to make it this year," Harry said, turning the page of his _Quality Quidditch_ magazine. Oliver Wood repeatedly jumped off his broomstick to make a spectacular save as Harry read on about the upcoming match between the Chudley Canons and the Wimbourne Wasps.

"That's rubbish, they don't know what they're talking about Harry," Ron shook his head, "They've drafted a whole new set of chasers. Personally, I think McGastly was worth a four player trade all on his own."

"I still think it's pretty neat that Wood went to the Wasps," Lavender cut into their conversation, batting her eyelashes at Ron.

"Right, Wood's great, but honestly I don't think he'll stand a chance against McGastly, he creates his own moves!" Ron said, not picking up Lavender's attempt at flirting.

"Can you family afford a radio now, Weasley?" Lucius said loudly over the crowd.

Ron's ears went pink as he balled his fists, "Bugger off, Malfoy," he said through clenched teeth.

"Probably a nice break your mother gets from having to pay to feed you all, while you're at school."

"Malfoy, back _off_ ," Bellatrix drawled, trying to sound offended.

"Sorry—" Lucius started to say before realizing it, "Sorry he can't fight his own battles," he corrected himself.

"Alright all of you, into class," McGonagall herded them along as she walked into the room.

"Just because your father will pay off anyone to win your battles doesn't mean you're the best around," Ron shot back.

"I think I'd rather have my father on my side then your pathetic excuse for a father," Lucius spat.

"That. Is. ENOUGH." McGonagall said sternly looking between the boys as the class looked on intensely.

"You will both serve detention tonight at 8:00. There are quite a few trophies to shine. Perhaps looking at the names of bright young students will give you something to strive for instead of resorting to juvenile bickering."

Ron sputtered, but Lucius simply bit his tongue, knowing he'd gone too far with a professor around.

"Everyone, please escort yourselves inside, _now,_ " Professor McGonagall directed, turning around and walking to the head of the room to start the morning's class.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

As 8:00 loomed, Ron bid farewell to the rest of the group and trudged down to the trophy room. Professor McGonagall was waiting there for him.

"Hello Professor," he greeted her somberly.

"Good evening, Mr. Weasley," she nodded, handing him a cloth and a spray bottle.

"Do I really have to spend 2 hours with Malfoy?" he asked.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley, I think it will do you some good!" she smiled, "There is always something you can learn from those you don't particularly get on with."

Lucius turned the corner, spotting the Weasley boy and professor on the other side of the room. He sighed, striding up to them.

"Good evening, Professor," he said as he approached.

"Good evening, Mr. Malfoy," she nodded at the second boy, handing him a cloth and spray bottle of his own, "I will return in two hours to inspect your cleaning. Perhaps this will give you time to sort through your issues with each other."

Ron scoffed, rolling his eyes at the ground. Professor McGonagall looked between the two, knowing this was useless, but out of options, "No magic. Have fun."

She left the room and Ron and Lucius looked at each other loathingly.

"Thanks a bloody lot for getting us into this, Malfoy," he turned and walked towards the first shelf of trophies.

"The whole lot of you Weasley's are incapable of accepting your place in the world," Lucius spat, setting his cloth and spray bottle on the floor and crossing his arms.

Ron looked back at him incredulously, "Do you seriously think so highly of yourself Malfoy? And that Death Eater of a father of yours? How dare you criticize my family. You should be embarrassed of your own."

"My father is one of the most respected men in the wizarding world," Lucius stated matter-of-factly.

"Maybe he was by Fudge," Ron shook his head, "But I think Scrimgeour is brighter than that. Sees right through him. Don't know why you bother standing up for your father at this point. He literally got arrested and sent to Azkaban at the end of the school year."

"I believe he was also released as favor from Fudge himself before he left office, less than 3 days later," Lucius sneered, "The rest of the wizarding world barely knows he was a part of it."

"Big mistake, that was," Ron said, scrubbing away at one of the trophies, "If you had any respect for yourself you'd disassociate from your family as fast as you could."

"What would a Weasley know about respect," Lucius retorted.

"What is your actual problem with my family, Malfoy," Ron whirled around, trying his hardest to keep from yelling.

"Your father is a sad excuse for a wizard, mulling around in muggle artifacts while we all know he isn't trying to restrict their use at all, he loves muggle artifacts, probably has a whole horde at home. Blood traitor," Lucius was inches from Ron, not enjoying his son's shorter stature that kept him from truly looking down on Ron.

"Your father has gone and fucked up your head real good, Malfoy. I've never liked you, but for some reason I at least gave you a little more credit than him."

"My father is one of the smartest men I know," Lucius boasted, "I'm more than lucky to be his son."

"Really laying it on thick now," Ron turned back around, determined not to earn himself another detention with Draco, and walked back to polish some more trophies.

The rest of the evening was silent, Lucius finally forced himself to shine a few trophies in the corner, muttering under his breath about how it was _house-elf work_.

McGonagall finally returned and relieved the boys of their work, ushering them off to bed.

When Ron and Lucius reached their splitting point, Lucius grabbed Ron's forearm, "Tell your father I am always watching, just waiting for him to slip up so he can be fired," he said it in a low voice, barely audible, but full of warning.

"Sod off, Malfoy," Ron ripped his arm back, turning off towards Gryffindor tower without a backwards glance. _What a weird thing for Draco to say, to threaten watching his father._

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Sorry for the update delay, it's been a few crazy weeks! I am off to Europe next week for some traveling so hopefully my 12 hours of flying will give me some good writing time :) Have a great weekend!


	14. What Happens in Hogsmeade

**Chapter 14:** What Happens in Hogsmeade

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

The days went by slowly in the dungeons, Hermione and Draco barely speaking at this point. Hermione was tired of the hot and cold act, and Draco was back to his normal brooding. It was like the summer all over again, only without the library to escape to while Lucius was out of the house.

Another week had probably gone by when Wormtail popped into the room with another backpack. He dropped it on the ground along with their plates of bread and went about his candle process before disapparating again.

Hermione walked over and grabbed the food, bringing one plate over to Draco and setting it next to him without a word. He nodded in acceptance, their eyes locking for a brief moment, sending chills down her spine, before she turned and walked back over to her corner.

After another couple of hours Hermione couldn't take it anymore, "Aren't you going to see what's in the backpack?"

"I will eventually," he responded, his tone emotionless.

"Aren't you curious at all?" she prodded.

"Can't be more exciting than a new blanket," he sighed, still unmoving.

Hermione rolled her eyes, returning her gaze to the book of fables, which she had now read twice through.

Another hour went by before Draco finally got up and walked over to the backpack. He dumped its contents on the ground and picked up the note from his mother.

 _Draco,_

 _I hope that you are well. You'll find parchment and a quill in the backpack, I made a deal with Peter so that he would agree to allow you to write me a quick note that he will deliver. Is there anything small I can send that would make your stay more comfortable? Hope the story book has kept you busy. I sent the house elf out to buy a new book for you, so you will also find enclosed a book on magical creatures. Thought there was a great section in there on Hinkypunks you would be interested in._

 _Love,_

 _Narcissa_

Draco folded the note and put it in his pocket. He looked over at Hermione, who was watching him, and threw her a fresh set of robes. Draco picked up the new book his mother had sent them, _Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them_ , flipping to the back cover where a photo of a wizard named Newt Scamander kept flashing a sheepish smile. He grabbed the quill and parchment as well and made his way back to his seat against the wall, setting the parchment down beside him to think about the note he wanted to write back.

He flipped open the new book, relieved to have something new to focus on.

Hermione threw on the new robes, glancing over at Draco who had already opened up a new book his mother must have sent him. She rolled her eyes in annoyance, every day felt like a lifetime with him across the room.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"So what's your plan here, mate?" Blaise asked as he and Lucius made their way up from the dungeons to the entrance hall.

"Just going to go for a nice walk in Hogsmeade," Lucius responded nonchalantly.

"I just want to make sure you haven't gone daft," Blaise tried to catch his eye as they walked, "You couldn't possibly be thinking of getting back together with her."

"Of course not," Lucius drawled, "But I've already told her I'll go, haven't I? So I'll go and we'll have a stroll and then we'll come back and it'll be over." _Wouldn't it be nice if this whole boyish game could just be over_ , Lucius thought to himself.

"Well, I'll be in the three Broomsticks with the new Quidditch recruits if you want to ditch her and meet us there," Blaise shook his head, scanning the hall and spotting their friends, "See you later."

Lucius spotted Pansy across the hall as well and made his way over to her. She was standing very seductively and batting her eyelashes at him. To the right a few steps were some of her friends, who were all whispering as they watched Lucius walk up to her.

"Shall we go?" he asked.

"Good to see you, Draco," she smiled, grabbing his arm, although he hadn't offered it to her, and letting him lead the way out the front door.

"How have you been?" she looked sideways at him, trying to appear as confident as she could.

"I'm not one for small talk," Lucius said, "What is it you'd like to discuss today?"

"Well, Draco, I overheard my father talking to Mr. Nott about how you were mixed up in some stuff this summer at those meetings. I had no idea you'd been invited to the meetings already and I know I didn't make your summer any easier, but I want you to know you can talk to me and I hope eventually we can move past what happened and give things another go," there it was, she had laid it all out there.

"I think you can put hopes of our future together to the side for now," Lucius said, he did like Pansy and the Parkinson family so he didn't want to discourage the girl forever if she and Draco came to an understanding in the future… if Draco even made it back from where he was right now and found a way to make amends with the Death Eaters, that is, "What do you know about what happened this summer?" he asked, curious what had gotten out from their meetings.

"I hope one day you'll reconsider our future together, Draco, I think you and I made a great team," she looked back ahead, gathering herself for a sense of normalcy, "I didn't hear much from my father, they were talking in low voices, but I heard they had planned your initiation and… and that you didn't get through it."

"Anything else?" Lucius prodded.

"They wanted you to kill a muggle," she said quietly, looking around them.

Lucius frowned, "Your father should be much more careful about what he says away from the meetings. It was, hopefully, just a momentary lack of judgment, what happened. One day there should be another opportunity to prove myself."

They were entering Hogsmeade now, the trees around the village filled with autumn colors.

More Hogwarts students were approaching the village, which was bustling with shoppers wandering about the streets.

"We can talk more about this somewhere private, maybe at lunch," Pansy said, acknowledging the growing presence of ears around them, but not ready to be done with the conversation, "I need to look for a gift for my father's birthday, would you mind helping me until then?"

"Sure," Lucius conceded, following her into the crowd.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Hermione, is that Malfoy with Pansy?" Ginny pulled at Bellatrix's sleeve and whispered in her ear as the boys went on about Quidditch practice.

"Yes, I'm sure they're just friends," Bellatrix said, internally cursing Lucius for his indiscretion.

"I thought they'd been dating last year? She's holding his arm."

"I'm sure it's not what it looks like," Bellatrix said again.

"I don't know, I don't trust Malfoy. If you don't say something to him, I'm going to."

"Don't worry about it, I'll talk to him later."

Ginny shook her head, but dropped the discussion.

"Hermione, I wanted to show you this set of quidditch gear I've been saving up for, get your opinion," Ron smiled at Bellatrix.

"Sure," she replied, following Ron into Dervish and Banges to get herself away from Ginny.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

The morning wore on as Lucius accompanied Pansy through the stores, helping her pick out a gift for her father, who he knew quite well. They finally stepped into the Three Broomsticks for lunch in the early afternoon, settling into a secluded table in the back.

"This has been so nice, Draco," Pansy tilted her head at him, a hopeful smile on her lips.

"I wanted to hear you out," Lucius nodded his head, "but this doesn't change anything."

The witch waiting tables passed by their table, "Anything to drink, dears?"

"Two butterbeers, please," Lucius said, waving her off.

"Just happy to be here with you," Pansy winked at him, grabbing her menu, "Feels like a step."

Lucius looked up as the door to the Three Broomsticks opened, Bellatrix was walking in with Harry and the two Weasleys. He brought his menu up over his face to hide himself as they settled into a table at the front of the restaurant.

"Hermione, that's Pansy over in the corner, I bet she's with Malfoy," Ginny prodded her as they sat down.

Hermione pushed her hand away, "It's fine," she hissed back.

The group ordered their drinks and the Ginny started telling them about the OWL work she'd been given so far this year.

"-and you wouldn't believe what Snape has assigned," she rolled her eyes, "36 inches on the pepperup potion! I mean between all of -" out of the corner of her eye she had caught Pansy moving her hand to the table to grab Draco's, who was fully in sight now, they'd been deep in conversation for a while.

"Oh no you do not," Ginny said, standing up and walking to the back corner.

"Gin-" Hermione started, questioningly before she spotted Lucius at the table and Pansy's hand on his.

Lucius pulled his hand away almost instantly, "Pansy, you know I am not looking for -" he was cut off by the Weasley girl storming up to their table, "I KNEW you could never change, Malfoy. How DARE you do this to Hermione, she's RIGHT over THERE."

"Draco, what in the world is going on," Pansy looked at him incredulously.

Bellatrix jumped up, "Oh bullocks," she said under her breath, "Ginny, DON'T!"

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

A/N: Happy Friday, readers! Sorry for the wait on this chapter, but I hope you enjoyed! More Draco/Hermione content to come! As a fun fact, I just spent 2 weeks in Europe, ending in London to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts 1 and 2)! It was an amazing experience, even moreso than I had expected! I hope everyone gets a chance to see it eventually :)


	15. The Hinkypunks

**Chapter 15:** The Hinkypunks

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

" _Oh no you do not," Ginny said, standing up and walking to the back corner._

" _Gin-" Hermione started, questioningly before she spotted Lucius at the table and Pansy's hand on his._

 _Lucius pulled his hand away almost instantly, "Pansy, you know I am not looking for -" he was cut off by the Weasley girl storming up to their table, "I KNEW you could never change, Malfoy. How DARE you do this to Hermione, she's RIGHT over THERE."_

" _Draco, what in the world is going on," Pansy looked at him incredulously._

 _Bellatrix jumped up, "Oh bullocks," she said under her breath, "Ginny, DON'T!"_

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"I tried to give you both time to figure things out before you told everyone but I cannot sit by quietly while you're over here galavanting around, holding hands with Pansy. Don't you have any respect for Hermione?"

Lucius opened his mouth and then shut it quickly, considering his words.

"Are you insinuating that Draco owes something to your Mudblood friend? You must be deranged," Pansy spat at Ginny.

Ginny never took her eyes from Lucius, waiting for him to respond.

"Hermione, what's going on?" Harry turned to Bellatrix in total confusion.

"Well… you see Pansy, the thing is…" Lucius started, formulating a direction, "You and I have been over for a while now, and I've been partners with Granger in Potions class this year. Turns out she's much smarter than we really gave her credit for and I've been looking for more depth in my next girlfriend. I was planning to tell you today, as a courtesy, but here we are."

Pansy's mouth was hanging open as he finished talking, "But.." she sputtered, not able to find the words in her brain to even discuss the topic.

"There is not 'but'," Lucius said with a tone of finality, "This is not how we planned to broach this subject with you all, but it seems the Weasley girl has taken it upon herself to bring us to this point."

"It's Ginny," Ginny glared at him, distrust written all over her face.

Finally letting out a breath from the other table, where she had been frozen, Bellatrix looked slowly between Harry and Ron, who were also speechlessly gawking at the interaction, and then she walked over to Lucius, "Well, I guess it's best that everyone knows now," she said in a faux-embarrassed voice, "I'm sure you all have a lot of questions but perhaps we could move this conversation somewhere a little more, ahem, private?" She gestured to the sea of Hogwarts students staring on from their respective tables, who all immediately looked away, pretending not to be eavesdropping, except Blaise who was on the opposite side of the restaurant, still staring on in awe.

The rest of the group looked around, tuning back into reality, and nodded their heads. Lucius stood up and he and Bellatrix headed towards the door, Ron, Harry, Ginny and Pansy silently on their heels, Blaise getting up to follow as well as whispers filled the air of the Three Broomsticks.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco woke up in a cold sweat, it had been another dream about _her_. He looked over, she was curled up against the opposite wall, sleeping. He took a deep breath and leaned his head back, trying to slow his heart rate back down. After a few minutes, he picked up the book at his side again, flipping to where he had left off. It was really just a very passionate course book on magical creatures, but again, his parents didn't understand much about non-dark magic books, or reading for leisure. He reached the section on Hinkypunks, which his mother thought would interest him for some reason.

 _A Hinkpunk is a diminutive, one-legged creature with the appearance of wispy blue, grey or white smoke. It has a proclivity for luring travellers off of their paths at night, into treacherous bogs or wetlands under the guise of a helpful, lamp-bearing being._

There was a graphic which depicted a couple following the creature down a dirt path, off the main road. Draco chuckled, they were amusing creatures. He turned the page and his brows furrowed. There was tiny writing, almost illegible, in the creases of the page. He squinted, trying to make out what it said - it was his mother's writing.

After a minute he dropped the book and walked over to Hermione, all pretense of their speaking terms forgotten, "Granger," he shook her lightly, "Granger!"

Hermione stirred, looking up at him, more than confused that he was engaging with her again, "Wh-yes?"

"It's my father and Bellatrix. They're at Hogwarts. They're taking Polyjuice Potion."

"What?" she said, shaking her head, focusing on Draco, who was standing over her now, "How do you know that?"

"My mother wrote a note in the book she sent, gods know Wormtail is too stupid to check what he's bringing us from my Mother," he smirked, "I bet all of her other packages were just to lure him into a false sense of security."

"Okay, but we figured that, didn't we? That someone must be there in our place?"

"Yes, but _Granger_ , Bellatrix is there as _you_. How long can she possibly pretend to be a decent human being? They're bound to screw up soon."

"You think I'm a decent human being?" She quipped, taking advantage of his change in mood. Draco rolled his eyes impatiently and she sighed, "Okay, and when they do, what happens to us?"

Hermione had sat up now, trying to follow Draco's train of thought, he looked too intense for the small amount of news they had received.

"Well, there's more," Draco grabbed the book again and brought it back, showing Hermione the writing in the book.

Hermione took a minute to read it, and re-read it, "I told you Wormtail was the weak link," she grinned at him. He flashed her an uncharacteristic smile back and for a moment, she forgot to breathe.

She looked back at the page:

 _Your Father and your Aunt are at Hogwarts. It's Polyjuice Potion - they used a secret passageway from the Hogs Head onto the grounds that's been there since back in our school days. They closed it off years ago, but they found a way to break through this summer. Read this carefully before you write back with the parchment I sent: When Wormtail apparates out of your dungeon, he takes back anything that is touching him. The problem is that he apparates into the house where the Dark Lord is hiding. Stay in contact with me and use Malfoy Code. They are planning something, but I don't know what. When I get news that The Dark Lord will be on a mission, I will give you a window and let's hope Wormtail visits in that slot. Keep track of days going-forward based on our correspondence. Today is Sunday, the 16th of October. When The Dark Lord is away, I will go to the hiding spot as though it is a normal visit with Wormtail and if you are there, I will be there to try to overpower him with you. I have nothing left to lose, Draco. The opportunities for you in His ranks after this are not bright and I will save you if it's the last thing I do. Sit tight until further news is relayed. Love, Narcissa_

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

When they reached a more secluded part of Hogsmeade, down the street and around the corner from the Three Broomsticks, Pansy grabbed Lucius' shoulder and spun him around, she was not happy now that the reality was setting in "Okay Draco Malfoy, you explain yourself now. Is this just your way of getting back at me for this summer? Are you trying to humiliate me by humiliating yourself?"

"This has nothing to do with you, Pansy," Lucius said curtly, looking at Bellatrix, hoping she would take over and do some damage control.

"He's not the only one with some explaining to do, Hermione," Ron said in a hurt voice as they all came to a stop in a circle, Blaise catching up to them as well.

"Right, I know we owe you all an explanation but it's really as simple as it sounds. We've been spending a lot of time together in Potions class and as partners and have developed feelings for each other," Bellatrix stated.

"Draco, what in the bloody hell is going on?" Blaise piped in, utterly confused by his friend's secret and how he possibly could have missed this.

"Don't pretend you could have the same connection with Draco as I do," Pansy ignored Blaise and took a step towards Bellatrix, looking back and forth between her and Lucius, "Or at least as I did."

Lucius grimaced at Blaise, knowing he'd have to deal with him later too, but turned back to Pansy who looked near her boiling point, "Pansy, we connect in different ways," Lucius said, trying to keep things as open-ended as possible.

"She can't possibly know you like I do, know what you've been through in your life, commiserate on your trials," Pansy was sinking into a voice of desperation, how could she have lost to Hermione Granger, "How do you think your father is going to react to this?"

Ron grabbed Bellatrix's arm gently, prodding her to turn towards him and Harry, "Could you please give us some kind of explanation that makes sense? I know you're a smart girl, but I don't understand how you can see good in Malfoy." He may feel hurt, but he was more worried for Hermione as a friend.

"He's changed, Ron, he's grown up, he's nicer now," she was trying to say all of the things she thought they'd want to hear.

"Hermione, you don't understand, he said some things to me recently, when we had detention. He hasn't changed. Whatever you're seeing in him isn't who he is."

"Hermione I have a bad feeling about whatever is going on," Harry chimed in and Ginny, whose arms were crossed next to him, nodded in agreement.

"There is nothing for any of you to worry about," she said as sweetly as she could for her level of annoyance.

"He threatened my father," Ron finally said, "Tell her what you said to me, when we were leaving the Trophy Room, Malfoy."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Weasley," Lucius said through gritted teeth, regretting his words now.

"He's lying, Hermione," Ron said, "He's the same slimy Slytherin he's always been."

"Ron, whatever happened between you and Malfoy is in the past. I'd like us all to try and move forward and hopefully form a friendship from here," maybe she could prey on their Gryffindor qualities.

"This is ludacris," Pansy finally snapped, "I will not stand by and watch you fall from grace like this. I'm sending an owl my father and I would expect a visit from yours in the near future if I had a guess."

Pansy gave Draco one last hard look and stomped off back towards the castle.

"I don't know what you're on about, Malfoy, but we're watching _you_ ," Ron said protectively, "I don't trust you for a second and you can pretend all you want, but I haven't forgotten what you said to me."

"And you can be sure that when you slip up and we figure out what your goal is here, we'll be there for Hermione," Harry was almost shaking, how could Hermione be so dense as to form an alliance with Malfoy.

Blaise was standing there, totally lost, mouth agape, just trying to follow the conversation, "First of all, Draco is not the monster you all make him out to be. He may be a bit of a prat sometimes but I have no idea how you could think he would have threatened your father. That's not something he would do. I think everyone needs to just calm down a minute."

"Hopefully in time you will both be able to forgive me for my past and we can call a truce on this silly feud we've had since we started at Hogwarts," Lucius held his head high, trying to portray an earnest apology best he could.

"If I see you sneaking around with Pansy again, you better believe I will call you out on it, Malfoy," Ginny's eyes cut into Lucius' like daggers.

"I think this went as well as we could have hoped," Bellatrix gave a half smile to Lucius, trying to lighten the mood, "Anyways, we really should all be getting back to the castle. I will go back with Harry, Ron and Ginny, L-Draco, I will see you later."

Lucius nodded, more than ready to be done with this interaction, "Right, I have one stop to make on my way back anyway, so I will see you all later. Blaise, I assume you're coming with me?" He turned around and headed in the opposite direction, a million thoughts running through his head.

"Bloody right I'm coming with you," Blaise blurted out, "I think you and me can have a nice chat."

"Shall we?" Bellatrix said to the group, who were all prepared to continue fighting their case as they walked back up towards the castle together. It was going to be a long evening.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N: Happy Sunday, everyone! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, let me know what you think so far :)**


	16. Making Amends

Chapter 16: Making Amends

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco sat down next to Hermione, realizing it was closer than they'd been in a long time. They finally had some hope and even if they had to sit and wait a little longer, it felt like they were going to make it out of their dungeon.

"Do you think your father could portray you for long?" Hermione looked over at him, relieved to see the smile still etched on his face. He'd been a prat, but for a while there she had felt such a strong connection.

"I think he can portray what I show myself as to other Slytherins," Draco said thoughtfully, "But I don't know how long he can appear genuine to Blaise."

"Have you and Blaise always been close?"

"Since we were children," he nodded, "Used to pretend we were Quidditch stars on these little brooms that just hovered a few inches off the ground. My mother and his were close from their school days."

"What do you think he would do if he realized it was your father?" She asked.

"I bet he'd go to Dumbledore, honestly," he answered.

"Dumbledore?" She cocked her head to the side, "Do Slytherin do that? Go to Dumbledore?"

Draco smirked, "Yes, Granger. We're not werewolves. Besides, Blaise knows my relationship with my father. He knows what happened this summer. If he realized my father was at Hogwarts, he'd know I was in trouble. Plus he's kind of a good guy. Still goes along with all of my antics, Slytherin at heart, but he's always had a better moral compass than I did. He wasn't brought up in the same kind of household as my father's. But that's what best friends are, right, yin and yang?"

Hermione gave him a sad smile, "How could your father do this to you, put you in this prison? You're his son…"

Draco felt himself hardening again and tried to fight it, she just didn't get it, it wasn't her fault she was raised in a normal home, "Granger," he tried to keep his voice steady, "I know this is all new to you, but my father is a Death Eater. He's murdered people. I may be his son but I destroyed everything - our relationship and my family's stability - when I couldn't follow in his footsteps-"

"Didn't want to," Hermione interjected quietly.

"What?" He looked over at her.

"You didn't _want_ to follow in his footsteps," she clarified, taking a deep breath before continuing in a strong voice, "This isn't the first time we've talked about this and you're doing the same thing now that you did then, where you're almost putting yourself down about not being able to kill an innocent muggle and frankly it's disheartening to hear you do that because I don't think it's how you truly feel. I wouldn't say you _couldn't_ follow in his footsteps. It's probably time you accept your decision and reconcile in your own mind which side you're fighting for."

Draco just continued to stare at her, a battle raging in his head. He didn't need _her_ to tell him what to do or what to think. What kind of right did she, _of all people_ , have to insert an opinion. But also she was right and he needed to accept that what happened that night was his decision and his declaration that he wouldn't be following the same path. There was no going back... and he wouldn't want to. But ALSO, who was she to tell him what side he was fighting for, maybe he was just fighting for himself and his mother's lives. He certainly wasn't going to become best friends with Harry Potter and battle his father for him. Another thought popped into his head, _but what if it was Granger he was fighting for, wasn't she who he was always fighting for in his dreams? Would he battle Lucius for her?_

"Malfoy?" Hermione prompted, had she gone too far? He needed to hear it, and if this was the chance she got, for a brief moment that they were being civil again, then so be it. What was another few days of not talking.

Of course he would. As he tuned back in to the girl next to him, searching his eyes, he knew the answer. Every dream he had had, every curse he had watched her take in this dungeon, if he was fighting for something in the end, it would be her.

"Your side," he finally said, nodding his head.

"Well," Hermione had expected a row and was completely caught off guard by his response, "Well, good then."

Draco's lips curled up into a half smile, seeing the passion in her eyes and enjoying that he had left her speechless. That feisty side of her was both the reason they had clashed for so many years, and the unique personality trait that intrigued him so much because it challenged him. He wanted to kiss her again, feel her tongue battle his with that passion, but the timing didn't feel right. There were a lot of quiet tense weeks he had caused that he probably had to make up for first.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Drake, I think it's time you and I have a little one-on-one chat," Blaise said, the agitation clear in his voice, as he caught up to Lucius.

"There's not much more to say," Lucius wondered how much Blaise would pry.

"I bloody well think there's plenty to say," Blaise grabbed his shoulder, forcing him to turn towards him. There was a dark look in Lucius' eyes that didn't match the situation, "Are you really dating Granger? And if so, why wouldn't you have told me? You know I don't care."

"I was hoping to keep the information private for the time being," Lucius said nonchalantly, "See where it goes before we go getting everyone all worked up."

"Why do you like her? How did it happen?" Something wasn't adding up, "IS this just to get back at Pansy?"

"We've been potions partners," he said for what felt like the hundredth time today.

"What characteristics of hers do you like? I've been under the impression that you've hated the golden trio our entire existence at Hogwarts because Potter turned down your friendship our first day here. Not sure I see that friendship blossoming any time soon either, I might add."

"She's smart," was the best he could come up with, "We do homework together and spend class time together and that's how school boy relationships happen," Lucius shut his mouth, realizing the statement definitely sounded weird coming out what what was supposed to be Draco's mouth.

"So this is just a convenient 'school boy' relationship?" Blaise was confused, "I mean whatever mate, but I feel like I've never know you to do something half-heartedly. You and Pansy were a team if I had ever seen one, and on that note, I am also very glad it's not her you're getting back together with today because team or not, I've never been very fond of her. But you're allowed a rebound, I guess if that's what this is."

"We're just seeing where it goes," Lucius said again, "Now that everyone knows I guess it will be easier for us to do that. I'd appreciate if we could drop the conversation now."

"In a minute, I'm not done yet," Blaise waved him off, "Now that everyone knows, what about your father? Pansy said she was going to write hers, are you worried Lucius will show up?"

"My father is an understanding man-,"

Blaise scoffed, "That's a statement I've never heard you say."

"I will simply discuss the matter with him if it comes up during the holidays."

"And then I assume I'll see you at my house for a bottle of fire whiskey? Or do you think you'll be locked up in your room again like this summer? Is this all just some big rebellion against your father?"

"Absolutely not," Lucius said confidently, "I plan to get back in his good graces and return to the Death Eaters in the future."

"Draco have you gone daft? This last month I don't know where your heads been at but you don't seem yourself. If you want to talk honestly with me, I'm all ears but you're all over the map right now. I'm heading back to Hogwarts, maybe take some time to do some soul searching." Blaise shook his head, done trying to reason with him and headed in the opposite direction.

Lucius closed his eyes, trying to remain calm, and continued on his walk towards Nocturn Alley where Nott was supposed to be waiting all day for him to show up.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Am I ever going to get that book back?" Draco asked coyly as Hermione flipped through it next to him. They'd been resting for a while, Draco with his eyes closed and Hermione doing some light reading, still seated a couple of feet apart in the corner.

"I've only got two hundred and thirteen pages left," she replied in a tone matching his.

Draco smirked, "Well I'm bored, you can go back to reading in a bit." They'd spent such a long time not talking that he was ready to be distracted with conversation for a while, try to get things back to the amicable spot they had had for a short time.

Hermione sighed, marking her page and putting the book down next to her, internally quite pleased with the distraction herself, "What can I do to entertain you, Malfoy?"

Draco leaned his head back again, thinking, "Tell me something nobody knows. Something you want me to take to the grave when we leave here."

Hermione tilted her head to look sideways at him, "Okay, I have actually, _off and on_ , quite enjoyed our time together when you're being pleasant. There's something nobody knows."

"I was well aware of that already," Draco said with an air of playful arrogance.

Hermione rolled her eyes, "Oh shove off, Malfoy."

"Okay, give me something juicier then. We're stuck here, no one for me to tell, still 50/50 on us making it out of here alive anyway."

Hermione considered the boy next to her thoughtfully, "Alright, I'll give you something real. I think the reason I've always pushed myself so hard, _too_ hard, in school was because I felt like immersing myself fully into the wizarding world would take away some of my guilt from leaving my parents in the muggle world and walking away from my childhood friends to be a part of this world."

"What did you tell your muggle friends when you came to Hogwarts?" he asked, he'd never thought about that before with muggleborns, "I guess you must have attended a muggle school before, huh?"

"I told them I was going to boarding school in London. After the first couple of summers trying to catch up, we just lost touch. I always felt like I was lying to them when we would talk about our lives, I was young and it just got too difficult."

"But you're still close with your parents, at least," Draco considered having to walk away from his friendship with Blaise at the age of eleven for a life he couldn't talk about. Seemed very tricky to traverse, indeed.

"Yes," Hermione had a slightly pained look on her face, "We are, but again, I feel guilty not being there to help around the house and sometimes I feel like I talk too much about the wizarding world and I don't want them to feel left out of that part of my life either. They are incredibly supportive but it's a tough balance."

"Yeah I can see that alright," Draco furrowed his eyebrows, "Did you tell them about your powers before you got your letter?"

"When I was nine we finally had a conversation about it," she nodded, "I mean they'd seen me do odd things as a baby, but as I was growing up I tried to hide it from them when it would come out because I thought something was wrong with me. Finally when I was nine there was this one time that I was upset because they wouldn't let me read after my bedtime, took my book and left my room and while I was sulking, my ceiling started raining. I was mostly trying to explain why my bedroom floor was wet. They obviously didn't believe me at first, had the roof looked at for leaks, tried to figure out if i'd thrown buckets of water all over my floor in protest but after a couple of stories of things that happened around me, or things I was able to do, I think they started accepting that I was different. When I got my letter at eleven, none of us were shocked, more relieved and excited for me to pursue my abilities and have an answer for it all."

"Did they think you were crazy at first when they found out about all of the things happening to you?" he asked curiously.

"No, when they realized there _was_ something different about me, they didn't send me to a doctor for being loony or anything, just encouraged me to be open with them when things would happen and not to shut myself away or try to hide it from them."

"Hm, I always wondered how it worked with you muggleborns and if your families had to go through some kind of sit-down with the ministry or something."

"Well I'm not sure about other people's cases, but luckily for me we all knew I had some abilities and that there must be an explanation for them."

"Then you came to Hogwarts and just immediately became the brightest witch in the school," he smirked at her.

"Well Malfoy, I think we both know my start at Hogwarts was a little bumpy," she blushed, thinking about the first couple months at school focused on learning and not making many friends in the process, "You certainly weren't much help in all of that."

"I was a very stupid eleven year old who had been shielded by his father to only see what he was supposed to," there wasn't much more he could say.

"Yes I know, but I feel you should understand that you and your friends didn't make us muggleborns feel very wanted at Hogwarts. I know things have changed with you, I just feel it needs to be said."

Draco leaned his head back again, "Yes," he sighed, "I know. Hopefully one day I'll live down my past." She was a tough cookie.

"I'm not harping on it," Hermione defended, "But it's not like I've really had the opportunity to tell you in the past, in a civil conversation."

"I understand," he looked at her again, "And I've never had the opportunity before to sincerely apologize, so... I'm sorry. I put you through hell and if I could go back and tell eleven year old Draco to get his head out of his arse, I would."

"And the hell you put Harry and Ron through?" she prompted.

"Partially deserved," he winked at her, but seeing the glare she was giving him, conceded, "Just joking. Yes, a lot of that was unnecessary as well. But to be fair, Harry refused my friendship on day one so we were never destined to be best friends."

Hermione hesitated a moment but felt she'd said her piece and gotten at least A decent response, "They're very nice boys. In a different world I think you'd like them."

Draco almost laughed, "Maybe in a different world."

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Hi All! Sorry for the long wait, it's been a hectic few weeks but I hope you enjoyed this chapter :). On the plus side, last weekend I was in Orlando at Harry Potter World (I bought Draco's wand because I already have Hermione's from HP World in Hollywood) and this weekend was the premiere of fantastic beasts 2! Feel free to leave a review of this story, or let me know what YOU thought of the new movie! I left with so many questions and can't wait to see where their new story goes next. Kind of cool to have a new wizarding world story where we don't already know what happens when we see the movies :)


	17. Moving Forward

Chapter 17: Moving Forward

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

By the time they reached the castle, Ron, Harry and Ginny felt they had pleaded their case as best they could, and it seemed Hermione was still not faltering. It wasn't even that she was defending Draco, she was just waving off their points and concerns, which was almost more frustrating.

"I assure you, I've considered everything and although I know it's hard to accept, this is a healthy relationship and he has changed, you'll see," Bellatrix said as they sat in the Gryffindor common room. She knew she couldn't escape from the conversation until everyone was as happy as possible, given the situation. It would be quite a setback to their mission to have Harry and Ron upset with her. However, she was also having a difficult time imagining what would bring Draco and the Mudblood together. Gods know Draco would never go for someone like Hermione Granger. What a joke.

"I'm just going to say it one more time," Ron grabbed her hand lightly, trying his best to impress upon her the importance of his statement and genuine care and concern behind it, "I know you're seeing what he wants you to see, but he is the same malicious person to the rest of us. If he cared about you the way you think he does, he wouldn't treat us like he has. Something is wrong with this and you need to take a step back and think about all of the factors."

"I appreciate your concern and I will be cautious," Bellatrix nodded, hoping they could turn the subject sooner rather than later.

"Hermione, has he ever asked you anything suspicious, about me or the prophecy or the Order?"

Bellatrix's ears perked up, maybe she could get some information out of them, "Of course not, but I mean if he does, what is it you'd be afraid of me telling him?"

"Well we're certainly not going to talk about that in the common room," Ron looked around at the students milling about.

"Right, of course not," Bellatrix said through gritted teeth.

"I just want you to be careful about what you say in front of him, this could all be some plot from his father."

"Harry I think you're reaching," Bellatrix deflected, "Plus I'd appreciate if you gave me a little more credit than giving in to someone's ploy and mistaking it for genuine feelings."

"We want to, Hermione, something just doesn't feel right. There's too much that happened at the Ministry, especially with his father being released from Azkaban under the radar, with the wizarding world hardly being informed that he was involved… we just don't know what he could be up to," Harry was trying not to think about that night at the Ministry, but it was hard to think about Draco without considering his father.

"I understand that what happened at the Ministry was difficult," Bellatrix did everything she could to keep herself from laughing or smiling thinking about killing Sirius and the look on Harry's face. Now wasn't the time, she had a job to do, "But Draco is not his father, never could be," wasn't that the truth, "I hope you'll be able to separate them in your mind."

Harry and Ron shared a look, the feeling of defeat settling in, "I think we've said what we need to," Ron said, "This is going to take a long time for us to accept."

"I understand that," Bellatrix nodded, "Thank you for listening to me. You are the best friends I could ask for." Hopefully adding in some sappy stuff would calm them down.

Bellatrix grabbed a textbook off the table, thinking of another way to extend the olive branch, "We have an essay due for History of Magic on Friday, I'm going to do mine now, so I can help you with yours if you'd like."

The boys grumbled but agreed, knowing Hermione's help was invaluable. They opened up their textbooks and started taking notes, Bellatrix trying to stay focused as she thought about everything she wanted to discuss with Lucius at their next meeting tomorrow.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Do you have any idea where we could be?" Hermione turned her body to face Draco, she was lying to the floor, head perched on her hand.

"I've been trying to remember where the Dark Lord's safe houses were," Draco nodded, "Some of them were just the houses of Death Eaters, so we could still be somewhere in England, and some were abandoned buildings scattered throughout Europe. The ones I had been to were in Bulgaria, Austria and Switzerland."

Hermione felt chills go up her spine at the thought of Draco being at Death Eater meetings, which didn't go totally unnoticed.

"I don't enjoy thinking about it either," he said quietly.

"Can I ask you something?" she said, curiosity getting the better of her.

He sighed, "Yes."

"What did you do when you saw them murdering people, how did you keep yourself composed? I don't mean it as an accusation, it's just hard to imagine you, as I know you now, sitting back and appearing interested."

Draco swallowed hard, "Accepting the person I used to be is always going to be a difficult thing for me to grapple with, Granger. But you have to understand that there was a wall I'd built around myself since I was a child to just accept the things around me as a way of life. There were a lot of spells, dark spells, that intrigued me because of how complex they were. I tried not to think of the end result, but of the magic. I associated it with power. When I was at the meetings I would set my mind on the idea of the spell rather than the reality of what was happening. I tried to just remain in the background and protect myself. It wasn't until it was my turn to kill someone that the wall fell away and I was left standing there, a 16 year old boy, facing another human being."

Hermione grabbed his hand and he flinched, not currently feeling deserving of her touch.

"Sorry to make you think about it," she said, "But it helps me to understand you."

Draco just nodded, taking a minute to study her fingers as her thumb lightly rubbed his, before responding, "Probably not a bad idea for me to reflect on things like that, either. I think I have a lot of introspection to do before I can come to terms with who I was and maybe figure out who I am now."

"Who do you want to be?"

"Someone I'm proud of," Draco said confidently, someone you're proud of, he added in his head.

Hermione smiled, "I think you will be. Sorry that was a bit dark, I'd never imagined you being actually at those meetings until you said that, even though obviously you must have been. On another note, have you thought at all about what you want to do for a career after Hogwarts?"

Draco was glad she hadn't removed her hand from his as he settled back against the wall, "Something in the background," he said, "I think after spending my life in the spotlight with my family, I'll be looking to do something low key. I have all the money I could need with my inheritance… assuming my father doesn't take that away, so hopefully I'll find something I can enjoy."

"Not considering something in the Ministry then?" Hermione grinned.

"No," Draco almost laughed, "Whatever I do, it won't be in the Ministry."

"I think when this is all over I want to do something where I have the ability to impact the wizarding world and make things better. For example, did you know the lack of rights House Elves have?"

Draco cocked his head at her, "Well… I mean they're house elves? That's kind of their job and they love it."

"But do they all?" Hermione had been bursting to mention her views on house elves since it came up earlier, "Maybe some of them want to live their own lives. Dobby-"

"Wait, did you say Dobby?" Draco cut her off, "Do you know my old house elf?"

It dawned on Hermione that Dobby had been the Malfoy's house elf before he was freed, "Well, yes. Harry actually set Dobby free after second year. He handed your father a book with a sock in it that your father handed Dobby. It was one of Harry's more brilliant ideas, really."

Draco actually did laugh this time, "No way. Father said he had Dobby taken away for disobedience and refused to add his head to the wall."

"Oh I assure you Dobby is safe and sound in the Hogwarts kitchen," Hermione said, "He knits hats now."

"I can't say I'm surprised, he always was an odd one."

"I think it's wonderful that he wanted to live a free life," Hermione reiterated, "Something I think should at least be an option for house elves. He's a great example."

Draco bit his tongue remembering that his goal was to set aside the ideals he'd been raised on, "If nothing else, you're very noble, Granger. Always a Gryffindor."

Hermione rolled over to her back again, "Just trying to keep everyone else thinking."

Draco moved closer and brought her hand into his lap as a statement that he wouldn't be letting it go and they each returned to their thoughts in a comfortable silence.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Nott," Lucius nodded at the wizard sitting behind the desk inside Borgin Burkes.

"Lucius," Nott nodded back at the body of Draco, "Wasn't sure you were going to make it."

"We had a little complication," Lucius rolled his eyes, "But I'm here and I'm ready to talk strategy."

The men made their way into the back room where they would be able to talk in private.

"How has the task of getting the Hogwarts teachers under the imperius curse gone?" Nott asked.

"It is going quite well, actually. Some professors have charms up around themselves to protect from these kinds of spells, but only the more powerful professors: McGonagall, Flitwick, obviously we didn't try to imperio Snape. But altogether we were successful over almost half of the professors on the list, so a total of nine. Any help inside the castle is good help."

"Well done," Nott raised his eyebrows, "None of us were sure you and Bella would be able to get any of them."

"You don't give us enough credit then," Lucius hissed.

"Let's discuss our next steps," Nott changed the subject, motioning behind him as two more figures stepped closer from the shadows.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Sorry for the wait, more to come soon!


	18. Unraveling

Chapter 18: Unraveling

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Wormtail apparated into the room with a loud *POP* and Draco's head snapped up from its resting spot on Hermione's.

His heart pounded as Wormtail dropped a bag on the floor and went about lighting the candles. Without a look in their direction, he apparated back out.

Draco jumped up and grabbed the bag, Hermione fully alert, still sitting in the corner, subconsciously missing the warmth of Draco's body next to her.

"Any news?" She asked as he dumped out the contents and rummaged around for a note.

"Nothing," he frowned, "Just another book and- what's this- bloody hell I think it's home cooked food. My mother sent us food, must be testing Wormtail to see how far he'll go with what she requests of him."

Draco walked over and sat down next to her with a paper bag in his hand, pulling the contents out with a grin: two individual boxes containing fresh, hot baked chicken and potatoes were stored inside.

"Must be some kind of heating charm," Hermione commented, the smell of real food filling her senses to the brim.

Draco handed her a box, "Don't say I never took you out to a nice dinner," he winked at her.

Hermione actually laughed, "Such a gentleman, Malfoy."

He handed her the silverwear his mother had packed and the two sat in a euphoric silence, enjoying what felt like their first meal in a lifetime.

After they had both finished and cast their boxes aside, Hermione set her attention on the new book, walking over and picking it up.

"What did she send this time? I was so set on the food I didn't even look at it," Draco stretched back out.

Hermione turned the book over, reading the description on the back, "Looks like another course book, this one is on astrology. My nightmare," Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Not one with the stars?" Draco teased.

"Not exactly," she handed the book to him as she sat down, "Does this have any significance to you?"

"No, but maybe if we take a scan through we'll find something interesting."

"I'm going to leave that one up to you," Hermione made herself comfortable against the wall again, "That is one book I won't be itching to steal away from you any time soon. Wake me if you find anything of note in there."

Draco opened up to the table of contents, "Enjoy your nap."

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Lucius walked into the Great Hall and noticed as voices became hushed, turning to whispers around him. He held his head high and walked over to the Gryffindor table, all subtly cast aside now, "Granger," he called as he walked towards Bellatrix. She was sitting with Harry and Ron, their conversation looked tense but cordial.

"Malfoy," she turned to acknowledge him, her eyes scanning the room as students looked on.

"Could I have a word?" Lucius held his hand out and Bellatrix took it, standing up to follow him.

"Of course. I'll see you later," she waved at Hermione's friends and followed Lucius out of the hall.

They wandered through the corridors, not speaking until they were in an empty classroom, a safe distance from the rest of the students.

"Well, it is much easier to communicate now," Lucius drawled, sitting down on one of the desks.

"Did you meet with Nott?" Bellatrix asked, all business due to the high stress she was already feeling from the day.

"Yes, apparently he had invited others as well. The Dark Lord was there."

Bellatrix's eyes lit up in the dim classroom, "He was there?! I should have been there."

"It was too dangerous, Bella, you know that. We had already gotten ourselves in thick water with the Golden Trio."

Bellatrix averted her eyes, jealousy was sure to show through, "What did you discuss?" she asked.

"The attack. It's coming sooner than we thought.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Potter," Blaise greeted Harry quietly, sitting down next to him at the Gryffindor table, trying not to draw attention to himself. He had waited until normal conversation had resumed in the Great Hall before excusing himself and making his way to the other side of the room.

Harry almost jumped, shocked to see another Slytherin approaching them, "Blaise, right?" he asked, he'd never talked to him before but he didn't seem as daft as the other cronies Malfoy kept around.

Blaise nodded, keeping his voice down "Look, I think we should talk. Something doesn't feel right. I have nothing against your friend, I just think something else is going on but I don't know what."

Harry considered his words, lowering his voice to match Blaise's, "Isn't Malfoy your best friend? Are you trying to warn us?"

"It's not a warning, I just want to talk this out, somewhere away from everyone else. Can you and Weasley meet me later? Tell Granger you're going down for some Quidditch and meet me at the pitch around 8:00?"

Harry nodded and Blaise stood up, leaving the Great Hall without another glance back.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Harry and Ron walked down to the Quidditch Pitch that evening in the brisk fall wind.

"Why are we meeting Zabini again?" Ron complained.

"I just want to hear him out," Harry reiterated, "I want to know if something's not right with this so we can look out for Hermione. Gods know she's not listening to reason right now."

"What if it's a trick," Ron said as they reached the locker room door.

"Zabini seemed worried, I wouldn't trust Malfoy, but I think this is real concern."

He pushed the door open, Blaise was already there, leaning against the opposite wall waiting for them.

"Thanks for coming down," Blaise said, pushing himself off the wall.

"We're here for Hermione," Ron said distrustfully.

Blaise nodded, "That's fair. All I ask is that we have a conversation, listen to what I have to say, and let me know your thoughts."

Harry sat down, "What's on your mind?"

"I've been getting the feeling lately that something is off with Draco. The declaration that Draco and Hermione are dating, and the conversation I had with Draco after only confirmed my suspicions further. Whatever is going on, I don't think we're getting the true story."

"What specifically makes you say that?" Harry asked.

"Well I've known Draco my whole life and no matter what he's been through, he's never kept anything big from me. He went through some shit this summer and didn't leave out a detail when we got back to school. It doesn't make sense that he'd keep Granger from me, or that he wouldn't have a substantiated reason for dating her. He's a calculated bloke and something isn't adding up. Also he's been a right prat these last few weeks."

"Seems in line with my expectations," Ron snorted.

Blaise gave him a side eye and continued, "You can think what you want about Draco but he's not all bad underneath what he shows everyone else. I'm telling you I have a bad feeling about this. I'd like your thoughts on what Granger has said about Draco and their relationship."

"She was barely listening to us when we were discussing the matter, more trying to avoid the questions," Harry said, "I understand what you meant when you said there didn't seem to be a substantiated reason for them dating. I couldn't get one out of Hermione either."

"Do you think Malfoy is dangerous?" Ron asked.

"I don't know," Blaise said honestly, "Has Granger seemed herself this year? Has anything seemed off? I'm just trying to figure out if it's just Draco, or if it's both of them."

"She's seemed off at times. I don't feel like she's been around as often as in the past, but that could be because she's been sneaking off to see Malfoy," Harry furrowed his brow, "I guess if I stop to think about it, she's hasn't been _totally_ herself, it's like sometimes there's emotion missing behind a smile, or she gives off a cold demeanor when Hermione has always had a warm heart. But maybe I'm reading into it, or maybe that's just how she comes off when she's trying to hide something."

"I don't disagree," Ron said begrudgingly, "There's been some kind of lack of connection this year. I see it too."

Blaise contemplated their response for a minute, "I think there's something we all need to do tonight. Go back to Gryffindor tower, ask Hermione something personal about herself, something you all know, and see if she knows it too."

"That request seems like it comes with a bold assumption," Harry said heavily, following Blaise's train of thought.

"I know," Blaise gave him an almost sad look, "I don't want that to be the case. If it is, try to act like everything is fine and let's meet again here tomorrow night and talk results, same time?"

"Okay," Harry and Ron agreed and the boys took off back towards the castle, Blaise leaving first, Harry and Ron a few minutes later.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Hey Hermione," Ron said, sitting down on the couch next to Bellatrix, who was working on a Charms essay.

"Hello Ron," she responded without looking up, it had been an exceedingly long day, "How was Quidditch?"

"Just threw a quaffle around for a bit, good fresh air," he said as nonchalantly as he could.

"Mm-hmm," she responded in acknowledgment.

"How are your parents doing?" Harry asked, settling into the chair next to them.

"They're well," she said, turning the page in her book.

"I was telling Harry the story you told me this summer on our walk back up, about that boy who was a patient of your parents and how he kept accidentally biting your dad. What was that muggle contraption called that he was there for, the one that makes people's teeth straight without magic?" Ron asked, his dad had been fascinated by braces when Hermione had told them the story at the burrow.

"I'm not sure I remember what you're talking about," Bellatrix said, turning to look at him now.

"You remember the story though, don't you? We were in stitches hearing about it."

"Oh, um, yes of course I remember the story, I just don't remember what it was called, it was quite an obscure contraption," she tried to smile as though the conversation were funny.

"Ah, oh well, sorry Harry, but anyway, it was quite a funny story, nonetheless."

"Indeed," Bellatrix said, turning back to her paper, proud to have evaded the question.

Harry and Ron shared a look, Hermione had laughed at Ron when he'd never heard of braces, reiterating what a common practice it was in the muggle world and loving being able to share these things with the Weasleys who were always so excited to learn. When Ron had suggested the test on their walk back to the castle Harry had confirmed that braces were a very normal thing to kids in the muggle world growing up.

"Lucky for you your teeth were so straight growing up, huh!" Harry said, throwing caution to the wind.

"Oh yes, definitely," Bellatrix responded, "Never needed that sort of thing. All natural teeth for me." She had to admit, the mudblood's teeth were quite nicely proportioned.

It was almost another dead giveaway that it wasn't her, they all knew she'd had her teeth shrunk in their fourth year by Madam Pomfrey when she was setting Hermione's teeth back after an enlarging spell gone wrong. It was no secret to the group that she'd let the healer go a bit smaller than normal so it was very unnecessary for her to say her teeth were natural. But maybe she was being sarcastic?

"Must have been a real shining moment for your parents, being dentalnoids and all," Harry said, waiting for her to correct him, giving her one last chance to prove she was their muggle-born friend, laugh at him even for such a ridiculous word.

"Oh yes, they were wonderful dentalnoids-" _that sounded right_ , Bellatrix thought to herself, "They were very proud that I had such nice teeth."

Ron, who didn't know much better, looked at Harry who gave the slightest shake of his head, "Well we'd better be off to bed, just wanted to say hi before we headed upstairs!" Ron said, pushing himself up off the couch, "Have a good night Hermione!"

"Night," she called after them as they headed upstairs.

"No way that's her," Harry whispered, "They're called dentists. Dentalnoid isn't a real word."

"Sounded close to me," Ron shrugged, "What are you going to do?"

"We're going to see what Blaise found out when we meet him tomorrow night."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N: Happy holidays everyone! I received a few exciting HP gifts this holiday season including the Battle of Hogwarts card game (review to come), some HP home decor for my new apartment, a writing desk (not directly HP, but I'll be using it to write my stories!), and a prized Weasley initial sweater, which I'll be sporting as my loungewear all winter! Hope you enjoyed this chapter, more Draco/Hermione action to come :)**


	19. Reignited

Chapter 20: Reignited

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Granger," Draco shook her lightly. He had been sitting next to her reading for a few hours, at some point her head had drifted onto his shoulder and he hadn't objected.

"Hm," she blinked sleepily before realizing she'd been resting on him, "Oh, sorry," she quickly sat up, assuming he had woken her for that.

"I didn't mind," he cocked a smile at her, "I just found something interesting in this book."

"What did you find?" She asked, trying to keep herself from being awkward about their closeness after such a turbulent month and a half.

"Another inscription from my mother, take a look," he handed her the book, open to page 94, about a quarter of the way through.

 _Draco - sorry for hiding this without a hint, I want to be cautious as I learn more, especially with back-to-back deliveries. I picked the chapter on dreams because it felt significant for some reason. I've been dreaming of you lately, dreaming of saving you, helping you escape. Not sure how you would have known that, but it felt right to me. Anyway, I've learned an attack is coming — soon. Today is Tuesday, the 18th of October. The attack will happen on Halloween. That's 13 days away. When it happens, I will make sure to give Wormtail a backpack that day. I will send one more between now and then. Don't bother opening the contents on the second backpack, it will just be a sign to follow Wormtail back. I will meet you there to fight Wormtail and escape. As of now I am decently sure he will be the only one at their hiding spot during the attack. Get some rest over the next couple of weeks so you have as much strength as you can. If I can't find your wand, I will bring a backup. I'll see what other details I can relay in my next message, I don't want to take up more than a page in this book in case anyone ever decided to flip through it. With Love, Narcissa_

Hermione's heart was pounding, "13 days," she said with confidence, looking at Draco with a wide smile.

Draco grinned, "We're going to get out, Granger. We're going to fight our way out of here." He leaned over and kissed her soundly, one hand cupping her face, all pretense out the (non-existent) window.

She kissed him back, she had almost forgotten what his lips felt like against hers and it was electrifying. Draco pulled back a couple of inches, his eyes locking with Hermione's for confirmation that he had picked the right time to redefine their relationship again. The look in her eyes told him there was no doubt that he had. She leaned back in and captured his lips with hers, sucking gently on his bottom lip to solidify her answer to his unspoken question.

It was passionate, but soft; excited but slow. It was a moment neither of them wanted to end. Weeks of anxiety, days of torture, hours of rows followed by more hours of silence, had all led them to this moment when that uncertainty felt like it was finally ebbing and a future seemed possible again. The real world felt like it could be real again. Time seemed like it actually existed with their new timer ticking down —13 days. The air felt warm in the cold dungeon as their tongues massaged one another. Draco's hand hadn't left Hermione's cheek, and her hand had only moved to rest on his leg. All that mattered was that their bodies were close and their lips were finally connected again.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"What did you find out?" Harry asked as he shut the door to the Quidditch locker room behind Ron and himself at 8pm the next evening.

"I don't think Draco is Draco," Blaise said.

"We don't think Hermione is Hermione," Ron nodded.

"Tell us your story and then we'll share ours," Harry said, sitting down.

"Whoever my roommate is right now had no idea what I got him for his birthday, which was a pretty meaningful gift that we used all the time last year and over the beginning of the summer," Harry and Ron were looking curiously at Blaise, so he elaborated, "It was kind of a two-way communication device - a pocket watch - that other people couldn't read. I charmed it myself but Draco's broke pretty soon before everything went to shit this summer with his father, so we lost touch until we got back to school."

"Couldn't you just send owls?" Ron asked, confused.

"Not that easy when you don't want your parents - or anyone else that could intercept an owl - to read your messages," Blaise shrugged.

"What happened with Lucius this summer?" Harry asked, feeling like it must have been significant.

Blaise teetered on his feet, deciding how much he wanted to divulge, "Well, Lucius is obviously… involved in some things… Draco didn't want to… be involved in those things. The outcome wasn't… ideal."

There was silence for a moment while the statement sunk in.

"How did your enchanted device break?" Ron was intrigued.

"Oh, he was angry with his father one night and chucked something across the room… smashed the pocket watch on his dresser to pieces by accident. He had told me that the last time I saw him… sometime in July. Then something happened and I didn't see or hear from him until September."

Harry and Ron looked at each other, obviously Lucius was a Death Eater, they knew that, but had Draco been asked to join the Death Eaters? At the age of sixteen?

"What happened with your friend?" Blaise asked, ready to change the subject.

"Hermione is muggleborn, her parents are dentists — teeth specialists," Harry started, "We asked her about a story she told Ron this summer about an extremely routine procedure her parents do all the time and she had no idea what it was called. I grew up in a muggle household and can tell you for sure that there's no way she wouldn't know. I also called her parents "dentalnoids" because I thought it was an incredibly ridiculous word that I could make up for "dentists" and she agreed that they were indeed wonderful 'dentalnoids'."

Blaise looked concerned, "No way whoever that is could be a muggleborn then?"

"Definitely not," Harry shook his head, "That conversation with a muggleborn, or even halfblood, anyone who's been around muggles, would have been considered ludacris."

"You two, and probably Ginny too, need to be incredibly careful," Blaise said, "I have a feeling we have two people, potentially Death Eaters, impersonating our friends. I don't know what's going on but we need to figure it out, and fast."

"Where do you think Malfoy and Hermione are?" Ron asked, his forehead creased with worry.

Blaise gave him an apologetic look, "I don't know, mate. I'm sorry about your friend. Hopefully they're at least together looking out for each other. Draco knows how to handle the Death Eaters, I don't think they would kill them."

Harry gave a dark laugh, "Yes, Hermione and Malfoy together in the same place, I'm sure that's going splendidly. They'll be lucky if they don't kill each other with death glares."

Blaise nodded, "Have to hope survival mode will set in I guess. If we can work together, maybe they can too. All we can do for them right now is try to foil whatever the imposters are here to do."

"Do you have any ideas on what we should do?" Ron asked.

"A few," Blaise sighed, sitting down to tell the boys his plan.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Good evening, Harry," Bellatrix drawled as she sat down on the couch next to him later that night.

"Hey, Hermione," Harry closed the book he was trying to read and set it on the table, "How was the library?"

"Illuminating," she smiled at him, she was in surprisingly good spirits after her conversation with Lucius about the pending attack. Thirteen more days and this charade would be over and she would be at the right hand side of the Dark Lord once again. Thirteen more days until the boy sitting next to her would be killed, once and for all.

"Wonderful," he gave her a half hearted smile back, "You know, Ron and I have been talking and we think it's important for us to give Malfoy a fair shot. We've all had our say about the matter but at the end of the day, if he's important to you, then we need to make an effort."

"O-oh," Bellatrix did her best not to let her smile fade, "Well that is lovely news, so kind of you."

"How about we set up an outing?" Harry suggested, "Best to keep it as private as we can given everyone's gossiping these days, but we could all go out by the lake, eat lunch one day this week?"

"I can ask him if he'd be able to, he's got quite a busy schedule with studying and Quidditch practice," Bellatrix said, a million thoughts running through her head.

"Well we think it's important that we all spend some time together. I'm sure it will be important to Malfoy as well," Harry patted her knee, "Hopefully you can make it work. Perhaps suggest he bring Zabini along with him, wouldn't want him to be uncomfortable."

"Of course," Bellatrix said in an overly sweet voice, "What a great thought."

"Great! Glad that's settled then," Harry opened his book back up, his heart pounding in his chest. There was anger, there was concern for the real Hermione, and now there was the always present imminent threat of real danger, sitting right beside him.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Hermione was breathing lightly, her head resting on Draco's chest, hand entwined with his against his heart. Draco's thumb brushed over her fingers as he looked down at her. He had fought against it long enough, this was how it was supposed to be with her. Hermione would never be just some girl to him again and he could feel that in every vein of his being. With her sitting against him he felt protective, he felt worried, but most of all he felt a surge of calm radiating from her. It was a comfort he hadn't felt with another person before.

Draco had been through a lot in his life and he had lived a life so opposite of Hermione's but he knew all of the dark days he had faced, she had faced in a way too, alongside Harry and… Weasley.

They had fought against the same forces from different sides. Draco, fighting against what his father wanted him to become, what he thought was inevitable. Hermione fighting for what was right, fighting for her friends, her family, and her freedom.

If he faced his father in the battle he knew he would finally do what was right. He would look him in the eye and denounce the very thing he was raised to become and he would fight.

Draco squeezed her hand a little tighter in his and leaned his head back against the wall, drifting into an uneasy sleep.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

A/N: Sorry for the wait! Hope you all enjoyed this chapter :) Happy 2019!


	20. Best Laid Plans

Chapter 20: Best Laid Plans

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Come on Granger, we've got to be in the best physical shape we can be in less than a week!" Draco was running in place, repeating words of encouragements as Hermione did jumping jacks opposite him, both breathing heavily.

"I know," she huffed, "It's just been a while."

Draco dropped down and started some push ups, and Hermione pivoted to a slow jog around the dungeon. Their scant meal schedule had made it so physical activity was the last thing their weak bodies wanted to do, but they had made a resolution the day they'd received their expiration date to exercise as long as they could after every meal, exert their energy for physical gain so that when they got out of the dungeon they would be able to run, if they had to.

They'd received a follow-up note from Narcissa the day before giving them the countdown of 6 days, which had made them double down their efforts.

Their circuits continued for another half an hour - run, jumping jacks, push ups, lunges - until Draco finally collapsed against the wall, "Okay that's all I've got in me today."

Hermione slid down next to him, taking deep breaths to slow her heart rate, "Lasted longer than you did this time."

Draco rolled his eyes, "Barely, you were about to give up as well."

"Just being a gentleman, then?" Her tone was teasing.

"Absolutely."

"What do you think is going on at Hogwarts?" She quipped, taking her hair down out of a ponytail.

Draco watched it cascade onto her shoulders, and had to pull himself back from thinking about running his hands through it, about balling it up in his fist while they kissed passionately... he cleared his throat, "Uh, well at this point whoever's impersonating us has been there so long that I'd have to assume the Death Eaters have become best friends with Harry Potter and there will be no war after all," Draco grinned, there was another time and place for his other thoughts.

Hermione gave him an amused look, "Now that's an alternative outcome I hadn't considered."

Draco leaned over and kissed her, unable to keep himself totally in check, pulling back and looking at her with a twinkle in his eye, "How in the world are you going to tell them you've fallen for me when we finally see your friends again?"

"I'm hoping they'll be so delighted that I'm alive that they won't think twice about it," she leaned back in and kissed him again, "Besides, I can't imagine their reaction will be any worse than your friends."

"Prepare yourself for the wrath of Pansy," Draco sighed, imagining it in his mind and draping his arm around Hermione's shoulder, pulling her closer.

"Perhaps her and Ron can just have a row between them until they've gotten it out of their system and we can all move forward from there." They both laughed, it was sure to be a scene for the books.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Good afternoon, Granger," Lucius greeted Bellatrix as she descended the hill to the lake, Ron and Harry in tow.

Today was their planned outing, finally coordinated after as much pushback as Bellatrix could afford without raising questions. They were so close to the finish line now.

"Afternoon, Malfoy," she responded as the group reached the lake's edge, turning to force a smile at Blaise, "How are you Zabini?"

"Doing splendidly, Granger," Blaise motioned everyone to the picnic blanket beside them, "Shall we?"

Everyone sat around the blanket awkwardly, food had been brought out by Lucius and Blaise from the kitchens.

"Malfoy," Harry addressed him, "We know we didn't exactly get off on the best foot when we heard about your relationship, so we wanted to extend the olive branch and put that all behind us."

Lucius looked at him skeptically, "Why the sudden change of heart, Potter? I'm not trying to be difficult, I just don't understand."

"Well you see, Malfoy," Ron chimed in, "We realize our history had been written for us by our parents. Our hatred of Malfoys, your hatred of Weasleys, Potters and… muggleborns," he sent a side-eye towards Bellatrix, "And we've never really given ourselves the chance to know the people that we are. We don't know you, so here is our chance to judge you outside of your family. Hermione says you're not the person you have been in the past. We haven't seen that side of you, so we're listening now."

Lucius considered what was said, trying to figure out where it was coming from. Draco would never be friends with these people, and he didn't think Potter would ever give Draco the time of day. Were they onto them? Or was this some Gryffindor trait that he would never understand?

"That is valiant," Lucius finally said, "Putting aside our differences for your friend? Do you really think you could ever accept me as a part of her life? As a part of your life?"

"Of course we could," Harry said, "Everyone deserves a chance, Malfoy. If Hermione sees something in you, then maybe we will too, with time," he gave him an empty smile.

Lucius nodded, lost for a response, "Well then, here we go," he returned the empty smile.

Blaise reached for the pumpkin juice, handing a cup to Bellatrix, "So Granger, Draco tells me you're the only student at Hogwarts with better grades than him," it truly was the only thing 'Draco' had said about her so far so he didn't have much to go on.

"Admittedly, that's true," Bellatrix said, grabbing a pasty from the basket as well, trying to act normal.

"What's your favorite subject?" Blaise continued to pour everyone pumpkin juice, more as a distraction from the uncomfortable situation.

"Arithmancy," she said shortly, it was a subject only her and Lucius were in so there wasn't much the others could know about it to inquire, "It's very interesting."

The small talk was bland and forced, but it was something.The group sat there for another hour, "getting to know" each other and trying to keep the questions simple enough for Bellatrix and Lucius to answer without knowing they'd given themselves away. The goal was to form a truce to keep 'Draco' and 'Hermione' close during whatever scheme they were planning, give them as little alone time as possible.

They walked back up to the castle for their afternoon classes, parting ways cordially.

"Well that could have gone worse," Blaise slapped Lucius on the back, "I've got to run up to the Owlery, I'll see you later."

Blaise headed towards the stairs, checking behind him that Lucius that turned towards the dungeons before choosing the staircase that would take him to the seventh floor rather than the Owlery tower. He took a deep breath, before heading up, _here we go indeed_.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

A loud *POP* interrupted Draco and Hermione's conversation, but to their surprise it wasn't Wormtail, it was Voldemort. They both jumped to their feet, it had been weeks since Voldemort had appeared.

"It looks like your mother has conned Wormtail into giving you some comforts," Voldemort said casually, his eyes casting around the room at the blankets and pillows on the floor.

"Least she could do," Draco responded through gritted teeth.

Voldemort waved his wand and everything disappeared, "I think I'll be having a discussion with Wormtail about that later."

His voice was conversational and eerily calm as he walked slowly towards the pair, "This is your last chance to be useful to me. Tell me Mudblood, what is it that Harry Potter learned in the Department of Mysteries last year."

"None of us know," Hermione's voice was shaky but defiant, "The prophecy broke open during the battle, no one heard what it said."

"Silly girl," his eyes flashed, "You cannot think that I believe that. I know there is something he learned. I want to know what it is."

Voldemort's wand flicked through the air and Hermione gasped, falling to her knees. No pain had come yet, but she knew it would.

"Tell me," he whispered, enunciating each word.

"No," she held her head high.

"Inpulsa," he slashed his wand.

Hermione yelped as a shock of electricity seemed to jolt through her body.

"How about now?" Voldemort asked.

Hermione didn't respond, knowing there was more coming her way.

"No?" He slashed his wand again and Hermione cried out again, dropping to her hands, quickly pushing herself back up.

"Maybe she really doesn't know," Draco stepped in front of Hermione, unable to stand by any longer.

"Malfoy, please don't," Hermione's plea fell on deaf ears.

"We don't have the strength to fight off your curses anymore. We've barely eaten for weeks," Draco didn't know what he thought would come of his reasoning, it just felt like maybe it would buy Hermione some time to recover.

"Move out of the way, Draco," Voldemort's eyes were cold, warning.

"Wait, I'll tell you," Hermione's voice came from behind Draco. The last thing she needed was him getting tortured as well when they needed all the strength they could get.

Voldemort pushed Draco aside, leaning down to Hermione's level, "Tell me, girl. What does he know?"

"Th-There's a weapon. A weapon that will kill you, once and for all. The prophecy didn't say what it is, but we know where it is, Harry has been trying to find it before you do," she gulped.

"Go on," Voldemort's voice was eager now.

"It's… it's in the room of requirement at Hogwarts. Hidden there by someone who used a time turner," she hung her head.

Voldemort stood up, looking triumphant, "Harry Potter wouldn't know a what a magical weapon would look like, would _feel_ like, but I do."

With that, he disapparated from the room, leaving a tense silence in his wake.

"Granger… you shouldn't have told him… Not to save me," Draco kneeled down beside her.

"It wasn't true," she whispered, barely audibly, "That's not what the prophecy said at all."

"Then how… why…?" He faltered, not following her train of thought.

"It was the best I could come up with. When the Order used to talk about the Prophecy, they called it a 'weapon' and that's always stuck in my head. But anyway, now we know where he'll be during the battle. He'll be in the room of requirements looking for something that doesn't exist. It'll keep him away from Harry and away from doing more damage."

Draco couldn't help but smile, helping Hermione to her feet and pulling her into a tight embrace, relieved that she was okay and unabashedly impressed, "Well I guess you really are the brightest witch of our age."

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and had a great Super Bowl weekend! Please leave a review and let me know what you think :)


	21. The Purple Flame

Chapter 21: The Purple Flame

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Dumbledore sat at his desk gazing thoughtfully at one of the many unique instruments around his office. This one in particular had caught his attention today. It was a lamp that stood on one of the far off filing cabinets on the other side of the room. The fire usually emitted an even orange flame which barely flickered even as the breeze came in the window, but not today. Today the flame was purple. He had noticed it over the past several weeks flicker purple every once in a while, going quickly back to its steady orange, almost faster than he could register the change; this was not totally unusual. Today, however, the purple shone bright and had flickered stronger each hour until now, where it held in a constant purple flicker that he couldn't take his eyes off of. He pondered it's meaning, fingertips pressed together, foot tapping gently on the stone floor, until he was interrupted by a soft knock at the door.

He smiled to himself, here must be his answer, "Come in, please."

The door creaked open and Blaise stepped into the room, "Professor, sorry to bother you, but I was hoping to have a word."

Dumbledore looked at the boy curiously, he had expected Harry to be the one walking into the room, "But of course," Dumbledore motioned him to the cozy chair across the desk.

"You look as if you were almost expecting me," Blaise noted as he sat down, the smile on Dumbledore's lips still apparent, "Do you know why I'm here?"

"I haven't the slightest," Dumbledore said jovily, "But I did have an idea that someone would be on their way to me," Dumbledore pointed across the room at the lamp, which now burned a bright steady purple, "You see, a dear friend of mine once gifted me this special piece which sparks purple when someone is thinking of the need for your immediate help. It's certainly had its days of shining purple, but not in a while. However, it has been going quite crazy all day today. I daresay whatever is on your mind is likely the reason for it."

"I would agree, Professor. We've got a bit of a situation on our hands," Blaise sighed, trying to figure out where to begin.

Dumbledore did not pressure him, but sat back in his chair, hands folded in his lap.

"We think there may be Death Eaters impersonating our friends," he said slowly.

"That is a large accusation, Mr. Zabini," Dumbledore's look became more serious now, not judgmental, but inquiring, "Let us first start with: who is 'we'?"

Blaise almost laughed, "Well, 'we' is myself, Potter and Weasley."

"I am guessing you were brought together by the bond of your friends Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Granger?"

"Yes, Professor, how did you know?

"Oh one tends to notice things from afar, notably in the Great Hall and whisperings that make their way back from Hogsmeade."

"Makes sense," Blaise continued, "You see the thing is that we don't think they are who they say they are."

"Is it possible that it may just take some time to get used to the idea of a Slytherin and a Gryffindor having a relationship with one another?" Dumbledore asked.

"There's a lot more to it than that," Blaise told him, "Draco hasn't been himself all year and Harry and Ron agree that Granger hasn't either. They don't know things about themselves that they should. It's like there's just something missing."

Dumbledore nodded, "You are sure?"

"I would say we are almost positive."

"Okay," Dumbledore stood up, pacing slowly around the room, "Do we know what they are here for? The Death Eaters?"

"Not a clue," Blaise felt relieved that he didn't have to persuade Dumbledore further, "We've been trying to keep them from as much one-on-one time as we can, but we don't know any details."

"That's okay, I have other ways of getting intel on their plans," Dumbledore completed the circle to his desk, "Now I think it is imperative that you and the others deal with this matter as safely and inconspicuously as possible. Let me give you a few of these galleons," Dumbledore opened a drawer and pulled out three galleons and handed them to Blaise.

Blaise flipped them over in his hand, they looked like normal galleons, "What are these for, Professor?"

"Give one to Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley, and at first notice of Death Eater activity, you can alert me by using the incantation ' _Nunc_ '," Dumbledore waved his wand in a swift downward motion, tapping the galleon. The galleon shook in his hand. " _Finito_ ," Dumbledore flicked his wand again and the galleon fell still.

"What if there are more of them?" Blaise asked, "More Death Eaters that we don't know about in the castle."

"I think for now we have to hope there are not," Dumbledore smiled at him reassuringly, "I will see what I can learn and we will have these devices as a last resort if something happens before we are ready. If it shakes, come at once."

Blaise stood up, recognizing the end of their meeting, "If I learn anything else I'll come back."

"Thank you, Mr. Zabini. Luckily I think we are at least ahead of the curve on whatever is going on and hopefully we'll be prepared when it's time."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Malfoy?" Hermione had been toying with the question in her head for a while now.

"Mhm?" Draco turned his head over towards her, he had just about fallen asleep before she spoke.

"What if your mother can't send another backpack? Voldemort warned that he'd be speaking to Wormtail about your mother sending things along."

"I hadn't thought about that yet," he frowned, "I guess we should start trying to keep track of the days on our own. We know as of today there are 6 days left. Tomorrow when our meal comes, we'll scratch a line into the wall and when we get to 5, we follow Wormtail back. If my mother sends a backpack or a letter, we'll know all the better that it's the right day."

Hermione leaned her head back on his shoulder, "Right, that should be easy enough. His visit just shook me up. It's been so long since he's came into the dungeon. It made me feel like he knows we're getting ready for something."

"I don't think that's it," Draco said, "I think he's getting close to the attack and still doesn't know how he should approach Potter. Nothing like getting beat by a kid five times now."

"Hopefully we've thrown him off the trail enough to make it six. How do you think we'll get to Hogwarts?"

"I have a feeling my mother will at least get us far enough from here that we can figure that out once we're closer to home."

"Will she be angry that you're bringing me with you? One escapee is probably hard enough to break out," Hermione looked worried, "And… you know, I'm a muggle-born."

"My mother is not my father, Granger. She has a heart. If you are with me, she will protect you."

"Okay," Hermione said, still unsure.

"No use worrying about it all the same," Draco sighed, "Just have to be confident that we know enough to make it out and it's the best chance we'll have."

"If only over-confidence was a Gryffindor trait," Hermione smiled up at him.

"Your bravery could be seen as over-confidence, to be fair," he fired back.

"Well when you're always right, is it really over-confidence?" Her smile widened into a grin.

"Now you sound like a Ravenclaw."

"You could probably argue I should have been put in Ravenclaw," she admitted, "But I do think Gryffindor had to edge out as the winner at this point."

"You've got courage Granger, that much you've shown me in the past couple of months. I've got to give credit where credit is due," he leaned down and kissed her, "But don't let it go to your head."

Hermione rolled her eyes at him playfully, "Like I'm the one with the big head here."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Harry was woken from his afternoon nap by a school owl pecking at the window. He opened it, grabbing the letter from its leg and feeding it a few treats before shooing it back off.

 _Harry,_

 _Quidditch at 8!_

 _-B_

"Ron!" Harry shook Ron, who was sleeping in his own bed.

"Whatcha won, Har?" came Ron's muffled half-asleep garble.

"It's Blaise. We're meeting him at 8. I wonder what Dumbledore had to say."

"Sounds good," Ron turned over, his snoring almost immediately restarted.

Harry looked at his friend and sighed, folding up the note and placing it in his desk drawer.

Later that evening, Harry and Ron took off with their brooms for the Quidditch Pitch, waving goodbye to Bellatrix and Ginny, who were doing homework in the common room.

Once inside the locker room they dropped their brooms and greeted Blaise, who was sitting on one of the benches.

"What did Dumbledore have to say?" Ron asked.

Blaise handed each of them a Galleon and proceeded to tell them about his meeting with Dumbledore.

"I wonder who his source is to get intel on the Death Eaters," Harry wondered aloud.

Blaise shrugged, "He didn't say. How do you suppose we go about trying to figure out what they're planning?"

"Maybe a better question is when," Harry said, "Maybe we can get an idea of when their plans end? Start trying to make future plans, see if anything slips, or if they make any weird comments?"

"Sounds like the best plan we've got," Blaise said, standing up. And at least now we can communicate when it's go-time. We'll keep sending owls unless it's absolutely urgent."

The boys agreed and Blaise headed back up to the castle. Harry and Ron stayed behind for a bit to fly around, since they were down at the pitch anyway. By the time they arrived back in the Gryffindor common room, only Neville was still up, trimming one of his potted plants.

"What've you got there, Neville?" Ron asked as they approached him.

"Oh it's a Venomous Tentacula," he said casually, "Thought it might be better to wait til everyone had gone to bed to take it out for a trim and feeding."

"Sounds like a good idea indeed," Ron agreed, taking a thoughtful step back.

"He's harmless right now," Neville shook his head, "Fed him a few minutes ago so nothing to worry about."

Harry noticed the carcas on the floor next to the table, "Nevertheless, I think we'll be off to bed now."

They waved goodnight and headed up the stairs, discussing some ideas of how to get information from their Hermione look-alike in hushed voices until they climbed into bed.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0

A/N: Sorry for the wait! I spent some time outlining the rest of the story, so stay tuned :) hope everyone has a great weekend, hoping the California sunshine comes back out from behind all the rain these last couple of months! (But of course, _at least it's not snow_!)


	22. Five Notches

Chapter 22: Five Notches

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

One notch in the wall… two notches… three… four… five notches.

"It's tomorrow," Hermione breathed, lowering her hair pin from the wall and pushing the front of her hair back with it again.

Draco wrapped his arms around her from behind, squeezing her tight, "We're ready for this."

She leaned back into him, feeling anxious but so ready to feel fresh air on her face again, "You better not be playing double agent on me," she sighed, half-joking

"Ah yes, this has all been my plan from the beginning. Starve and weaken myself for months, gain your trust, and feed you to a horde of Death Eaters."

Hermione shot him a look over her shoulder, but before she could retort he captured her lips with his.

"You must be a little sad though," he goaded her.

"And why on earth would I be sad?"

"Because you only have one more night to spend curled up on the dungeon floor with Draco Malfoy keeping you warm before we get back to Hogwarts."

Hermione turned around to see his infamous smirk looking back at her, "You better make it a romantic one then," her eyes were soft and her tone challenging.

"How about if I promise to make the first night we spend _not_ on a dungeon floor a romantic one?" He wiggled his eyebrows and she felt herself blush.

"If you're implying that you'll be taking me on a romantic date to celebrate our escape, then that sounds lovely. I'll need to make sure real-world Draco Malfoy is as charming as dungeon Draco Malfoy."

"Call me that again," he pulled her closer.

"What? Dungeon Draco Malfoy? Dungeon Draco?" She laughed.

"Just Draco," he smiled down at her, "I like how you say it."

Hermione smiled back at him, a little embarrassed realizing it was probably the first time she'd called him by his full name, even said his first name out loud probably, "Draco," she said again. It felt like it rolled right off her tongue.

He pushed a stray hair behind her ear and kissed her lips, trailing his mouth across her cheek with short lingering kisses until he got to her ear, "I think I could get used to hearing that," he whispered.

She felt goosebumps run up her arms as his breath tickled the crook of her ear, "Guess you'll have to take me on a top notch date then."

He stepped back, running his hand down from her shoulder, along her arm to her hand. He locked eyes with hers as he lifted her hand to his lips and gave it a gentle kiss, "You'll be shocked at what a gentleman a Malfoy can be."

He winked at her and she couldn't help but laugh, pulling her hand back, "You won't make me swoon that easily."

"Alright, I'll start with a trip to Madam Puddifoot's when we get our first Hogsmeade weekend together then," Draco flashed her a smile.

Hermione scrunched her nose, "Not sure Madam Puddifoot's is my kind of place, but I do like all of this talk of how you'll be wooing me. Makes me forget about the whole escaping from a dungeon guarded by Death Eaters part in between now and then."

"Ah yes, of course not. Perhaps a date to the book shop."

"I know you're probably joking, but that does sound wonderful," Hermione said truthfully.

Draco chuckled, "I wasn't totally joking, thought that might be something you'd enjoy. But first thing's first, shall we start our morning Jog?" He suggested, stretching out his arms.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

They'd been trying to get information from fake 'Hermione' for a few days now but not a single useful piece had been dropped yet. Alternatively, Harry and Ron had started feeding her false information, for whatever that was worth.

" _Have you been to the new Order Headquarters in Scotland yet?_ ";

" _Did you hear Dumbledore's password changed to 'twiglings'_?";

" _Can you believe the secret to getting into the womping willow is just to grab onto one of the branches?_ " (that one might not be helpful, but would be amusing to watch);

" _Harry we're always jealous that your wonderful aunt and uncle take you on holiday to the south of France every year!_ ";

" _Who would have thought that the whole Weasley family would be deathly allergic to nuts!_ " (This one was a lie that ended up biting Ron in the behind when banana nut muffins were served for breakfast the next day).

Who knew if any of that would ever come in handy, but whenever possible, they'd throw in a little something. It was almost fun. Something that was about the order members or Harry's past that was complete nonsense. On the plus side, they had, to the best of their knowledge, kept fake Hermione and fake Malfoy from any one-on-one time.

As they sat at breakfast that morning, ron scarfing porridge into his mouth, Harry turned to Bellatrix, "What do you think of Hogsmeade this weekend?" he asked.

Bellatrix was pulled out of her thoughts and realized she'd been staring at the butter, "Um, Hogsmeade?" she blinked. There was no reason to even be humoring weekend plans as the gig was up tomorrow, "Doesn't really matter," she shrugged, "Sure."

Her response caught Harry off-guard, "Did you have other plans?"

"Not at all," she smiled, trying to keep it from turning to a grin. By this weekend the boy next to her would be dead.

"Are you excited for the Halloween feast tomorrow?" Ron asked.

"Oh yes," her eyes gleamed, "Very much so."

Harry was starting to feel uneasy. Were they onto something? Was it happening tomorrow? She looked much too happy about the feast, when she didn't normally show genuine emotion.

"Will Malfoy be joining us at the Gryffindor table for the feast?" he asked.

"Probably wouldn't be best for you to sit over there," Ron added.

"I guess that makes sense," she said, annoyed.

"Great! Maybe we can hit the kitchens after the feast and see what they've got leftover that we can snag for the weekend," Harry pressed.

"I'll probably head to bed directly after the feast," Bellatrix said, trying to steer away from any more plans. She needed to be by the secret passageway entrance by 9:30pm.

"Not even a late night pumpkin juice? I'm sure Dobby would love a reason to say hi."

"Dobby?" Bellatrix blurted out, _wasn't that Lucius's house elf?_

"Oh yes, he's in the kitchens now," Harry tried putting the pieces together, obviously whoever this was knew Dobby, to react so severely.

"Of course he is," she recovered, "But I'm afraid I'll have to pass, give him my regards."

"The next morning we were thinking it would be nice to have lunch down by the lake," Harry said, "Something light after the big feast."

"Why not," Bellatrix gave him a cold smile, hoping he was done now.

Ginny was sitting across the table taking in the odd conversation. Harry had already told her that it wasn't Hermione and about the plan to get information. From a third party perspective, it was almost too funny that no one else had noticed that this wasn't their Hermione. The things she didn't know were becoming more apparent by the day.

"Will you be coming for Christmas?" Ginny asked Bellatrix, "I know it's early, but Mum was asking in her last owl. I think we'll be spending it in Brazil with Charlie. He's there with a new batch of horntails." _Another lie. Charlie had been sent back to Romania last month, and Christmas would be at the burrow._

"In Brazil, you say?" Bellatrix took a gulp of her water, noting the details for the Dark Lord in the future, "Sadly I won't be able to attend, sounds lovely."

The group finished up their breakfast and took off for classes. The halls were abuzz with excitement for the feast the following evening.

At lunch that afternoon Harry pulled Ron aside, excusing them to go clean their Quidditch brooms, "I think I've got it," Harry whispered as they walked down a corridor near Gryffindor tower. He walked into an empty classroom, pulling the galleon out of his pocket, "I talked it over with Ginny, I got multiple hints that it's happening tomorrow, after the feast."

"Let's ring the alarm," Ron nodded.

Harry tapped his wand on the galleon, " _Nunc_."

The galleon started shaking violently in his hand. Ron felt his front pocket where his own galleon was shaking. Walking back out of the classroom, they turned and headed for the seventh floor.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

" _Fizzing Whizbees_ ," Harry muttered to the gargoyle outside Dumbledore's office. They followed the staircase up and were greeted by an open door. Blaise was already there, talking with Dumbledore.

They turned around as the boys entered, "I happened to be on the 6th floor already," Blaise smiled, "What've you found?"

Harry relayed his conversation with fake Hermione, noting the details that pointed him to believe it would be happening tomorrow.

"It's nothing concrete," he leaned back on his heels, unable to read Dumbledore's expression, "But the conversation gave me knots in my stomach feeling like she wasn't interested in entertaining anything past tomorrow. She had this gleam in her eye when she talked about leaving the feast."

"Fake Draco made a comment about needing to send an owl before tomorrow, as well," Blaise commented, "I also overheard him wave-off Pansy by telling her they could discuss whatever was on her mind this weekend. Might have been a way to avoid her altogether."

Dumbledore considered the facts, "I think we best be prepared. I trust your instincts, Harry," he stood up, walking over to a painting on the wall, "Professor Dippet, can you pass on the following message to the Order faculty as soon as possible - _There may be time for tea tomorrow evening after the feast_. For the rest of the faculty, please deliver the message tomorrow during the feast."

"Of course, Headmaster," Dippet gave him a determined nod, walking out of his frame.

Dumbledore turned back to the group, "I'll have the Order alerted tonight to arrive through my personal fireplace tomorrow during the feast for those who are not professors, and the whole of the faculty will be aware by tomorrow evening. I don't want to get anyone riled up too soon. Directly after the feast I want the three of you to come up to my office. We will prepare to lock down the school. Hopefully everyone will be back in their common rooms by the time anything is to happen. I'll have professors standing guard at each entrance. Hogwarts will be prepared to defend itself."

The boys agreed, a heavy tension filling the room with the unknown the following evening would bring.

"Mr. Zabini," Dumbledore addressed him, "See if there is anything more you can get Mr. Malfoy's double to divulge. Where he's going, who he is, what's coming for us. Do you have any connections to the Dark Lord's followers?"

"I don't, personally, Professor, I've tried to keep myself out of it until recently. But I think I've got an idea. Someone a Death Eater might trust more than me. I'm sure they know my family hasn't taken a side."

"Don't do anything that would put yourself or anyone else in danger," Dumbledore instructed out of obligation, "But bring any information you can after the feast."

They left the office one at a time until it was just Harry and Dumbledore left.

"Harry," Dumbledore's expression was conflicted.

"Yes, Professor?" Ron had just left and Harry had assumed he'd leave a minute after, but turned back towards Dumbledore.

"I trust you understand the significance of Death Eaters in the castle, and the possibility of what we may be facing. So I must reiterate that it is of the utmost importance that you use caution one-on-one with anyone tomorrow. You, I am sure, are what they are here for. I do not know their plans, but it will be my goal to protect you, and protect this school. I know trouble has a way of finding you, but I must urge you not to seek it, should it find its way into the castle tomorrow evening. We will all work together to fight off whatever is on its way. For together we will always be stronger than even the most powerful burst of courage you may feel facing those who oppose you."

"I won't go looking for it, Professor. My friends will be in their beds and no matter what they've concocted to lure me away, I would never walk away from protecting them."

"Gryffindor over glory," Dumbledore chuckled, "You always have been a protector. Alright, off to class with you!"

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

" _Lucius_ ," Bellatrix whispered as she walked into the dark potions room later that evening, " _Are you here_?"

" _In the storeroom_ ," Lucius whispered back.

Bellatrix walked into the storeroom and Lucius shut the door behind her, turning the light on, "I didn't want to chance being caught on our last evening," Lucius said. The storeroom was small and they were very close to one another.

Bellatrix's hand slid up Lucius's arm, "It is indeed our last evening. I know our priority is to confirm details for tomorrow, but promise me before you go back to Cissy, we can find an hour together to celebrate what we've accomplished."

"Perhaps more than an hour will be needed for a proper celebration," Lucius looked down at her lustfully.

She grinned back, "Shall we talk details then?"

Lucius' voice turned to business as he recited the plan, "Tomorrow at 9PM we will leave the Halloween feast and convene in the potions room. At 9:30 we will make out way down the concealed door that we stand on in this storeroom and through the passageway. At the wards halfway we'll perform our spells to break them down and the door will unlock on the other side for the Death Eaters to get through. We will move together through the castle to find Potter and Dumbledore, and we will finally take down the Order from the inside," Lucius said each word with excitement, "The Dark Lord will rise again from inside Hogwarts castle."

"Do you think they have any idea?" Bellatrix asked, "Do you think they've figured out that we're not who we pretend to be?"

"I don't think they have a clue," Lucius said with confidence, "We have fooled them all. Tomorrow their ignorance will be their downfall."

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

A/N: Sorry for the wait! On a side note, I've started listening to Mugglecast again, which I remember listening to years and years ago before I got "out" of Harry Potter for a while. I am incredibly happy to find out that they're still podcasting and bringing the series to life every week, and especially glad I have a whole pile of podcasts to get me through my workouts as I start training for my next half this summer. Anyway, just wanted to suggest it for anyone who hasn't listened before. As crazy as it is, it's the same podcasters from the Mugglenet team that have been doing the show from the beginning! Hope you enjoyed this chapter xoxo


	23. The Escape

Chapter 23: The Escape

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco and Hermione had barely slept that night, both anxious with anticipation of their escape plan.

"Do you think your mother will be able to give wormtail a bag, you know, make sure it's the right day?" Hermione broke their silence, finally willing to admit she wouldn't be able to sleep any more.

"I really don't know," Draco sighed, "We just have to trust that we did our counting right and that he's only been bringing us our one meal a day. Hard to know any better than that."

"I know," she hesitated, "Do you think there are other Death Eaters where he'll be taking us?"

"Hopefully they will all be with the Dark Lord," Draco tried to give her a reassuring smile.

"Just have to believe it'll all work out as we planned," Hermione nodded.

They got up and stretched, making small talk to take their mind off the impending battle and trying to go about their normal day.

"My stomach is starting to feel like it's almost lunch time," Draco could feel his heartbeat increasing gradually by the minute now.

"Any last words," Hermione joked, feeling the pressure of time.

"It's been a pleasure being prisoners with you," Draco grinned at her, grabbing her hand.

"Certainly wouldn't have been as eventful without you here," she grinned back, eased by the warmth of his hand on hers.

A loud *POP* grabbed their attention and they both jumped to their feet. Their timing had to be perfect. There was no backpack, but they couldn't worry about that right now. Wormtail set down their plates of food and stood back up. They watched as he took a deliberate turn to disapparate and, with one last look between them, hearts pounding, they pounced to grab his robes.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Draco!" Blaise called from behind Lucius, watching his blond hair disappear around the corner.

Lucius stopped, biting his tongue and turning around to flash a fake smile, today was a big day and he didn't want anything to seem amiss, "Hello, Blaise."

Blaise caught up to him, fighting through the students in the hall, "Excited for the feast tonight?"

"I am, indeed," he responded with true joy in his voice.

"I saw Pansy a few minutes ago and she said she needed to talk to you," Blaise told him, "She looked worried."

Lucius furrowed his brow, "I thought I'd told her we'd talk this weekend. No matter, I'll go find her."

He wandered off and Blaise headed towards his next classroom.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Pansy?" came Lucius's voice. She was sitting in the Slytherin common room reading the morning's edition of the Daily Prophet. She had just had an odd conversation with Blaise and had been expecting Draco to come see her.

She set the paper down, "Can we talk in your room?" she asked.

"I've got a busy day today," Lucius deflected, "I was hoping you just had a quick question."

"It's important," she said, "It's about what's happening tonight."

Lucius looked at her hard, did she know?

"Let's go to my room," he agreed.

He shut the door behind them, "What would you like to talk about?"

"I know something big is happening tonight, heard it through the grapevine from my father," she told him, "I know you said we could talk this weekend but I couldn't wait til then. I thought maybe you might have heard something from your father, if you're back on speaking terms?"

"Doesn't sound like something your father should be offhandedly mentioning," Lucius said through gritted teeth.

"I was home last weekend and I overheard him, he thought I was sleeping so it wasn't his fault," she said, "I'm happy to hear that you know what I'm talking about, you must have patched things up at home," she looked happy for him, "I just want to know if there's something I should be prepared for… something I can help with."

Lucius hesitated, "It would be best if you stayed in the common room after 10PM," Lucius told her, he did like Pansy and wouldn't want her to be caught in the crossfire. Besides, it wasn't a battle for kids, "That's all I can say."

"If you're involved, Draco, I'd like to be by your side."

Lucius looked at the girl, almost sad for her love of his pathetic son, "I must ask you to stay out of the way, it's for the best for everyone."

Pansy nodded, "I just wanted to offer," she gave him a small smile, "Good luck, Draco."

She left the room, heading to her next class.

Lucius stood there for a moment teetering on his feet, had he said too much? Even if he had, she was a Parkinson and she would never betray Draco, it wasn't anything he needed to worry about. He just wanted to keep her away from the battle, students being around would only make things more difficult.

Lucius grabbed his bag off the floor and started off to his next class as well, ready to get the evening underway.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Draco, Hermione and Wormtail landed hard in a pile on a wood floor.

"Draco!" came Narcissa's voice as she jumped out of a chair in the corner, wand high.

The three scrambled to their feet as Draco held Wormtail's arms crossed behind his back. Wormtail wailed so loudly it was shocking to the ears.

"Stupify!" Narcissa yelled and Wormtail went stiff as a board. Draco dropped him on the ground and stepped back to join Hermione and his mother.

"That was almost too easy," Draco panted.

"He's splinched himself!" Hermione exclaimed, pointing to his leg.

They looked down, Wormtail's left foot was missing.

After the initial shock wore off, Narcissa lunged at Draco, pulling him into a tight hug, "You're alive," she stood back and looked him over, "A bit pale, but you look as well as you could be," her eyes glistened with tears that she wouldn't let slip past her lids, "Now listen, we need to run when we get outside. We're at Yaxley's estate in a back house. You'll have to run past the main house and out the front gates, there's a painted red rock to the left, it's a portkey and it's leaving in 5 minutes."

"Are there others?" Hermione asked.

Narcissa looked over at her for the first time, "Yes, a few," she said, "And I'm sorry, but who are you?"

"Mother, this is Hermione Granger," Draco said, trying to give a proper introduction.

"The muggle-born Granger girl who always scores higher than you on the exams?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

Draco rolled his eyes and looked at Hermione, "I didn't talk about you very often except to complain about you being smarter than me."

"On exams," Narcissa added.

"Mother, she'll be coming with us… she's with me."

Narcissa looked back and forth between the two, noticing a slight tension, "I see," she said, "Well, we better hurry along, stay close, Hermione, I have a wand you can use at the safe house, but I only brought one along for Draco. There are others that stayed behind, but not many. If we're quiet, hopefully we can slip past them altogether."

Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and nodded, it wasn't the warmest welcome, but it would do for now.

They opened the door quietly, staying as low as they could as they walked out of the house and quietly made a run for it. The gate wasn't close, but they could see it ahead.They passed the gardens and the gazebo, peaking around the corner of the main house as they approached the front.

"Looks clear," Narcissa whispered.

They inched forward through the shrubbery to stay hidden until they reached the final path to the gate.

"On the count of three, we run," Narcissa told them, "one, two-"

"Well what have we got here?" Growled Yaxley, who had come up behind them, "Thought I wouldn't have sensors for people sneaking around my backyard? What's the meaning of this, Narcissa?"

"RUN," she bellowed.

The three of them jumped up and ran as fast as they could towards towards the gate. They were so close. They rounded the last statue, Yaxley at their heels, when another figure jumped out from behind the statue and tackled Hermione to the ground.

She yelped in shock, trying to fight off her attacker, he didn't look familiar.

Narcissa and Draco were still running when they heard the sounds behind them. Draco stopped dead in his tracks, "Mother, I have to go back."

"I need to get you out of here," Narcissa pleaded.

"I can't go without her," he said with finality, his voice pained.

Sensing the bond he must have with her, Narcissa nodded, "Go to her, Draco. I won't leave without you."

Draco ran towards Hermione's screams, which were becoming louder by the second.

They were torturing her.

" _Expelliarmus_!" Draco shouted at Yaxley, who was looking on as the other man used the Cruciatus curse.

Yaxley's wand flew out of his hand, but he reacted quickly and grabbed it before it hit the ground, "Didn't we teach you better than that, young Malfoy?" He jeered, walking slowly closer to Draco.

"I won't fight like you do," he said resiliently, " _Stupify_!"

Yaxley blocked the curse, "Your school tricks certainly won't help you here." He clearly thought of Draco as a child, he wasn't even trying to fight back, just laughing at him.

Hermione's scream echoed in his ear again, " _INCARCEROUS_!" He yelled with all the power he could muster.

Vines shot out of Draco's wand from different angles. Yaxley was able to block some, but couldn't block all of the vines as they wrapped themselves tightly and quickly around his body. He fought against the bind, but before he could wriggle out, Draco followed up with " _Stupify_!" He went limp and Draco turned to Hermione and her attacker, who were only another ten yards away. The Death Eater hit her with another spell and her screams stopped as she lay motionless on the ground.

"HERMIONE," he screamed, running towards her, " _CONFRINGO_!" He pointed the wand at a bush next to the Death Eater and it burst into flames, throwing him back a few feet. Once unguarded, Draco pointed his wand towards him " _Petrificus Totalus_!" The man went limp and Draco ran over to Hermione, she was breathing and her eyes were open, but unfocused.

"Draco?" She mumbled, trying to regain consciousness.

"Can you get up?" He asked, "We have to make a run for it now."

"Yes," she answered feebly, shaking her head, but aware of where she was, "Yes, let's go."

He helped her up and put an arm around her for stability as they moved as fast as they could towards the gate exit. Near the outskirts they saw Narcissa, who was panting and straightening her own robes, "There was another waiting at the exit," she motioned towards the unconscious form on the ground, "Let's get to that portkey."

They walked out of the gates and found the red rock, each putting a finger on it. More yells were coming from inside the house as lights turned on and figures started running across the lawn.

"Nearly time," Narcissa said, her voice shaking, "Hold steady."

The footsteps came nearer and nearer and just as the faces started becoming more clear, a familiar pull behind the belly-button came, not a second too soon and everything went black.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o


	24. The Halloween Feast

Chapter 24: The Halloween Feast

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

They landed on their feet on the floor of a very nicely kept living room.

"Welcome to the Malkin residence," a house elf greeted them from the doorway, sporting an almost fashionable pink satin drape, "My name is Alba and I am at your service."

Narcissa placed the rock on the table and brushed off her robes, "Thank you Alba, is your master in?"

"She will be up with tea in a moment," Alba nodded, motioning them to the couches.

"Esmeralda Malkin was like a second mother to me," Narcissa told Draco, "I went to Hogwarts with her daughter Agatha. Agatha lives in Scotland now with her husband who plays Keeper for the Montrose Magpies." Narcissa sat down, "Before we get comfortable, is there somewhere these two can shower?" She asked Alba.

"There is one bathroom through the door over here and one upstairs. There are towels hanging in both rooms, ma'am," Alba informed them, "Please make yourselves at home."

"I'll go upstairs," Hermione offered, addressing Draco, "But I think we should be quick, we need to plan our next move."

"I agree," Draco nodded, "We'll meet back in a few minutes. Mother, I hope you understand we can't stay long."

Narcissa looked like she had something to say, but instead smiled, "We'll talk when you're cleaned up."

They went in their separate directions and took the first shower they'd had in months. It wasn't as quick as planned, but it felt nice. Very nice.

Draco, donning a fresh set of robes the house elf had brought him, arrived back in the living room where Narcissa and Madam Malkin were sitting, talking in low voices.

They looked up as he walked in, "Esmeralda, could you give us a few moments?" Narcissa asked, eager to speak with Draco.

"Of course, dear," Madam Malkin replied, "I'll bring some fresh tea for the kids."

Narcissa smiled broadly at Draco as he sat down next to her, "It still feels surreal to see you here," she pulled him into another tight hug.

Draco embraced her, feeling as though he couldn't agree more.

She pulled back, hands on both of his shoulders, "Now that you're safe, it's important for you and I to get out of London. Esmeralda has set up a route to get us to France. It will be a day or two of travel to cover our tracks and make sure we get to the next destination, but once there we should be untraceable. It's no estate, but it's a beautiful little cottage on the coast. We can lay low together until the war is over, however long that may be."

Draco looked at her, torn, "Mother… I can't go with you."

Narcissa grabbed his hand gently, "You must, Draco. We're not safe in this war. You were a prisoner of the Dark Lord. If your father finds out what I've done…" her voice trailed off, "It's not safe for either of us here anymore. We must go."

"What if we fight on the other side," Draco said, almost not believe the words coming out of his mouth; the implications they held.

Narcissa gave him a sad smile, "I'm afraid we wouldn't be welcome there, either. Even if we were, we would be targets."

"I can't leave Hermione," he repeated firmly, "I'm going to fight with her. I understand if you need to get to the cottage and stay hidden, but I need to go back, this war isn't over for me."

"Is there anything I can say to change your mind? You are my only son, Draco," there were tears in her eyes again. Years at Malfoy Manor had taught her not to let them out, but he could see them.

"I love you mother. I could not be more thankful of your help today, but I must fight in this war," he hoped she could understand.

Narcissa paused, trying to read him, "Do you love her, Draco?"

Draco faultered, he hadn't been expecting this question and he didn't know how to answer.

"Why do you want to go through all of this trouble, why do you want to fight against your father? We could leave tonight."

"I need to," he told her, hesitating briefly before he let the words come out, "Because I do love her."

They looked at each other quietly for a moment, her eyes searching his for confirmation that what he was saying was true.

Hermione walked back into the room from her shower, feeling the tension immediately.

"I'm sorry, I can come back," she turned around.

"No, dear," Nacissa's voice was soft as she pulled her gaze from Draco, "No, come in, we need to discuss how we're getting to the castle tonight."

"But mother, you need to go," Draco cut in.

"Draco, I need to be there with you. If you're going, I'm going. We'll fight together. Besides, I already have an idea of how we can get there."

Madam Malkin walked back into the room behind Hermione with a tray of goodies, setting it on the coffee table, "Tea time!"

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

The day at Hogwarts wore on like a tortoise as Harry continued to check the clock. From one class to the next, everyone was talking about how excited they were for the feast that evening. Whispers all around them were jovial for the long weekend.

"Harry," Ron's voice was distant in his head, "Harry!"

Harry jumped, registering the world around him again. Everyone was packing up from their last class of the day, "Feast is in an hour," Ron said, once he had Harry's attention.

"Right," Harry responded, packing up his books and bringing up the rear behind Bellatrix and Ron as everyone exited the classroom.

Bellatrix gave an overly fake yawn, "Gosh, I am already so tired," she said, "As much as I'm looking forward to the feast, I really must get early to bed tonight!"

"Of course," Harry said as casually as possible, "You'll want your rest for Hogsmeade this weekend."

"Absolutely," Bellatrix said, her grin a little too evident.

"Well we better get ready for the feast, we'll meet you in the common room at six," Harry said as they reached the stairs to the boys dormitories.

"See you soon," Bellatrix turned the other direction and headed to the girls staircase.

Once inside their own room, Ron opened up his trunk, "Alright, my brothers sent me a few gadgets they thought might be helpful. Mum told them what was going on last night after our talk with Dumbledore and they sent a care package this morning," he started unloading some items from a box, "We've got the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, a Portable Swamp, and a few of the Wildfire Whiz-Bangs."

"Won't hurt to bring them along," Harry agreed, grabbing a few items to throw in the inside of his robes.

"Do you reckon most of the Order will be here?" Ron asked, "It seems like most of my family will be."

"I hope so," Harry said, "We're stronger as a unit together, aren't we?"

"Suppose so," Ron nodded, "Can't believe it's happening tonight."

"Me neither," Harry sat down on the end of his bed, "My main goal is to move the battle outside the castle and keep everyone inside of it safe."

"It's a good plan, might just depend where they're coming in from."

They finished preparing for the feast, reading through a few last spells from the Defense Against The Dark Arts book before heading back down to the common room where Ginny and Bellatrix were waiting for them.

"To the feast?" Ginny greeted them.

"To the feast," Harry nodded, taking her hand in his and squeezing it tight as they all walked off to the Great Hall.

The celebration was as grand as ever, with goblets of pumpkin juice and bowls of food and candy lining the table, and the Hogwarts ghosts popping in to share stories from their days at the school. The atmosphere was bright and loud and Harry, Ron and Ginny did their best to fit in, albeit what was coming later.

Dumbledore looked down on the students with a smile, taking in the joy that spread through the Great Hall and enjoying this moment as a proud professor. Reminding himself again of what lie ahead, he leaned over and whispered something in Professor McGonagall's ear. She gave him a curt smile and excused herself from the table, tapping a few professors on the shoulder as she walked out through the back door. As the feast came to a close, students retreated from their tables, full and content and followed the prefects back to their common rooms. Some professors followed Professor McGonagall out the back of the Great Hall, while others left through the main doors, heading out into the castle.

"Time for us to sneak away for a snack," Ron whispered to the group, "Hermione are you sure you don't want to come with us?"

"No, thank you Ron, I am quite tired now. I will see you all in the morning," Bellatrix waved at them, barely giving them a backwards glance as she continued towards Gryffindor Tower.

Harry, Ron and Ginny broke off from the rest of the Gryffindors at the staircase and walked down as though heading towards the kitchens, making a swift right turn at the bottom to take a different set of stairs up to the 7th floor.

They arrived at Dumbledore's office a few minutes later, met inside by a good chunk of the Hogwarts professors. Voices quieted as they walked in, and Professor McGonagall walked forward to them.

"Potter, we are expecting a fair few more professors to meet us here, along with some of the Order members," she informed them, "The professors will mainly be protecting the castle and the students, as well as the points of exit, while you and the Order members work on directing the Death Eaters out of the castle."

"That was exactly my plan," Harry agreed, "Where is Dumbledore?"

"He is at his fireplace, he lifted his wards so the Order members could get through. Once they're all in, he'll close it back up and we'll give quick directions to the room before we disperse."

Harry looked over to see the fireplace burning green as a few red-headed figures slid into the room. Ron and Ginny ran over to greet them as Harry stood and looked around the room, his heart racing for each person standing there.

The door opened behind Harry and he turned to see Blaise entering.

"Evening, Potter," he said, "You'll want to come with me to Dumbledore to hear the news I've got."

Harry and McGonagall followed Blaise over the the fireplace, "Professor," Blaise caught Dumbledore's attention, "The attack will be happening at 10pm."

"Thank you Blaise," Dumbledore said, his voice echoing his feeling of gratitude for the information, "We're just expecting a few more people."

One by one the fireplace burned green and members of the Order trickled in. Dumbledore did a headcount as Lupin slid into the room and leaned over to McGonagall, "Minerva, it seems we're down a few professors," they shared a look and he turned back to the room, his voice louder this time, "Everyone, words cannot express how thankful I am to have you here to support us tonight. For tonight we face our same enemies, but this time, it is in our home. We will defend the school from these intruders and push them back onto the grounds. The Aurors are on their way and will be joining us from outside of the castle. In twenty minutes, we will take our places. May the school rise with us, without rising student from their beds!"

Dumbledore turned to place his protective wards back on the fireplace when it burned green again. He looked surprised, but stood back, wand at the ready.

Everyone looked on curiously as two more figures slid out of the flames. The first stood up, brushing off his robes and holding a hand out to help the other to her feet. Mouths dropped around the room and some wands raised higher.

"Hermione?!" Ron exclaimed.

"Draco?!" Blaise echoed.

Draco and Hermione's eyes shot up and took in the room full of people.

"It's us!" Hermione said quickly, remembering others must be at Hogwarts in their place, "It's really us. Ask us anything, we'll prove it."

O-o-o-o-o-o-o


	25. The Battle Begins

**Chapter 25: The Battle Begins**

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

The room was quiet as they took in Draco and Hermione's presence.

"What do your parents do for work?" Ron broke the silence.

"They're dentists," Hermione responded quickly.

"Draco, what did I buy you for your birthday last year?" Blaise asked.

"A pocketwatch," Draco gave him a wry smile.

Ron and Blaise lowered their wands and everyone else followed, rushing over to the pair. Harry and Ron were at Hermione first, hugging her from two angles and spewing questions at her.

"Where did they take you?"

"Are you alright?"

"How did you get back?"

"Why did they take Malfoy?"

Blaise was doing the same to Draco as Dumbledore made his way over, "I think some space to breathe may do them some good," his eye twinkled.

The group backed up and Dumbledore conjured some armchairs behind Draco and Hermione. They sat gladly, sharing an overwhelmed look between them and Draco grabbed Hermione's hand in encouragement. They'd spent a lot of time with just the two of them in a quiet dark dungeon.

"Oh come on," Ron moaned, "Are you really together in real life, too?"

Hermione almost laughed at the predicament of it all, "Were we together at Hogwarts as well?"

"Guess we'll have to get used to seeing more of each other," Blaise put a hand on Ron's shoulder.

"We don't have much time," Dumbledore said softly, but pointedly, "But it may be important to hear some portion of your story."

Hermione took a deep breath, trying to find where to start, "Well it was the first night back in the castle after summer holiday when I was - when _we_ were - transported into a dungeon, which we recently learned was at the Yaxley estate. We woke up there together the next morning."

"Must have been a pleasant surprise to see Draco's face greeting you," Blaise gave her an almost apologetic look.

"It certainly took some getting used to," Draco grinned, "But eventually we were civil."

"Mr. Malfoy, if I may, do you know why you were taken prisoner?" Dumbledore asked.

"Because I couldn't be one of them," Draco said simply, "I'm not a Death Eater," he glanced at Hermione, "I didn't want that life and my father cast me aside. They likely thought I was more use to them as a position at Hogwarts, so they threw me in a dungeon and took my place here."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding, "You were put in a difficult position, Mr. Malfoy. We cannot choose our upbringing and the line between being loyal to your family and being liable for your own choices is quite thin," he steered the conversation back to their story, "Did you interact with anyone in the dungeon, or were you alone until you escaped?

"Voldemort would pop in and try to get information from me, specifically," Hermione told them, "He would torture us both from time to time. But mostly we just saw Wormtail, who would bring us one meal a day and relight the candles when they would melt down."

"Did he tell you, or did you tell him anything we should know?" Dumbledore asked, "We would understand, of course, if you had to."

"Nothing true," Hermione tilted her head to the side, "But I told him a few days ago that Harry was hiding something in the Room of Requirement. I told him you'd found a weapon that could defeat him."

Dumbledore smiled, "Very smart of you," he turned to Harry, "Harry, I will go to the Room of Requirement to head off Voldemort, as I must assume that's where he'll be heading. I want you all to stay with Professor McGonagall and protect Gryffindor tower. They will most certainly also be coming to look for you there."

"Professor, I could come with you," Harry suggested.

" _You_ are who he wants, Harry. I will meet him in the Room of Requirement and we will, no doubt, reconvene on the grounds when he learns he has been fooled."

Harry begrudgingly agreed, turning back to Hermione, "So how did you get out?"

"Draco's mother was able to smuggle notes into us through Wormtail. He trusted her and thought she was just trying to make Draco comfortable with things like blankets and pillows. She told us about the attack and gave us a plan to follow Wormtail back as he disapparated so we could escape while the Death Eaters were distracted."

"She'll be coming along shortly as well," Draco said to Dumbledore, "We were at Madam Malkin's house and when she learned we were trying to get back to the castle, she suggested contacting your brother at the Hogs Head. Once we talked with him, he tried persuading us against it, but eventually gave the fireplace a try and saw that you were here and the floo network into your office was open, so we gave it a shot and here we are."

"A happy accident that I didn't close it too soon," Dumbledore said, looking over at the fireplace as it burned green again, "Good to know Aberforth still has access to get ahold of me if ever he'd like to catch up."

After a second Narcissa slid into the room, standing up with her head high and brushing soot off her jacket. She looked around the room for Draco, a nervous, but defiant expression on her face.

"We're here, mother," Draco called to her before addressing Dumbledore again, "Professor, we'd like to fight with you, if you'd give us the chance."

"You will be protected here," Dumbledore nodded, "It seems as though you've been through an ordeal and one tends to come out a different person from those experiences than they went in," he turned back to the room at large, "It is almost time, friends, let us go forth through the castle and do our duty."

There was a murmur of agreement as people started leaving the office two by two.

Draco and Hermione were the last to leave, meeting Harry, Ron, Ginny and Blaise around the corner.

"It's such a relief to see you - the real you - alive," Ginny said to Hermione, "We've been so worried."

"It's nice to be back inside Hogwarts," Hermione said, still in disbelief that they had come this far.

"Stay close and be safe," Harry said to the group as they moved towards Gryffindor Tower, "We've all got a lot to catch up on, but we've got a battle to fight first."

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

"Evening, Lucius," Bellatrix said as she walked into the Potions storeroom, brushing up against him. They had let the polyjuice potion wear off this time so they could meet the Death Eaters as themselves, the masquerade finally over.

"Good evening, indeed," he grinned down at her, "Are you ready to bring the Dark Lord to Harry Potter?"

"I've never been more ready," she pulled out her wand, unlocked the hatch to the trapdoor and they descended the long set of stairs to the secret passageway out of Hogwarts.

It was a ten minute walk to the center where charms had long protected the school from intruders through the passageway. The last student to learn how to break those charms had been Tom Riddle. This passageway was one he had used throughout his years at school to get into Hogsmeade by entrance through Nocturn Alley, as he had never been able to attain a proper permission slip for the class trips.

The tricky thing about it was that the charms had to be broken from inside the castle itself, so Tom would sneak out through the passageway and sneak back blending in with different groups of students heading into the castle.

This had been especially tricky to get Lucius and Bellatrix into the castle at the beginning of the school year. With Draco out of the ring of Death Eaters, Voldemort had called on Theodore Nott to step into his training rank. Theodore was nowhere near as powerful or smart as Draco, but he was dedicated and quiet enough to go unnoticed as a possible suspect. Theodore didn't hang out with the popular Slytherins and didn't boast about his father's position in the Death Eaters, but instead kept more to himself, looking forward to leaving school behind for the life that lay ahead of him. On the first night of term, he had walked down the passageway as instructed at his first Death Eater meeting that summer and had followed Voldemort's directions to break the charms, he made some mistakes, but finally succeeded after a few tries, opening the passageway for Lucius and Bellatrix. Theodore had done his best to stay out of the way since then, his duty done until he would rejoin the Death Eaters in their battle on Halloween.

As Lucius and Bellatrix worked to break the charms in the passageway, Theodore stood guard inside the Potions classroom.

As the last charm was broken, the invisible wall sparked and dissolved before them, revealing the group of Death Eaters that stood mere feet away, Voldemort at the forefront.

"My Lord," Lucius bowed his head and Bellatrix mirrored him.

"You have done adequately," Voldemort praised them, ushering the group forward, making their way through the passageway and up the stairs into the storeroom, and through to the Potions classroom. Theodore watched the group spread through the room, counting maybe 10 of them altogether. A side door to the classroom opened and Professor Snape walked in. He looked more disheveled than usual, but as Theodore had been told, Snape was not aware of the original plan, and likely had not been notified until possibly moments ago. He joined the line of Death Eaters, keeping his composure and holding his head high as Voldemort's snakelike eyes gleamed over them all.

"Here we finally are," his voice was quiet but distinct in the silent room, "Let us infiltrate the castle while it sleeps, unaware of our presence, oblivious of our deception of Albus Dumbledore, and unprepared for our invasion as we reap our rewards of months of planning. Let us find _Harry Potter_. Let us forever mock the name of The Boy Who Lived."

Splitting into smaller groups, they took these words to heart, prepared for the fight, and left the Potions classroom. Some headed towards the staircases to the Entrance Hall while other veered off towards the staircases to the classrooms.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Voldemort lead the first group onto the landing of the Entrance Hall, shadows creeping along the walls in the dim firelight that guided their way.

"Think of all the children asleep in their beds," came the whispered voice of Fenrir Greyback.

"We have a _mission_ ," Bellatrix whispered back, throwing a side-eye his way, "If a child gets in your way, do what you will, but we are to find Potter in his dormitory and bring him to the Room of Requirement."

"I know the plan," Greyback responded through gritted teeth.

The castle was quiet albeit the sound of rain falling steadily outside the doors as they tip-toed across the foyer.

"Did you hear that?" Lucius stopped dead in his tracks. He swore he'd heard the sweep of a robe behind him. Everyone stopped and he peered into the dark hallway.

From out of nowhere, red flashes of light pummeled towards the pack of Death Eaters, who dove out of the way. Voldemort, enraged by the ambush, sent flashes of green light back in the opposing direction before flying up the stairs, determined to get to the Room of Requirement. How could they have been found out?! Lucius and Bellatrix would pay later for the failure of their undercover operation.

As the Death Eaters regained their footing, the battle began in the Entrance Hall with the Order members. Flashes of red lit up the room as spells were were yelled from either side and the castle awoke within.

Hearing the commotion in the Entrance Hall, the second group of Death Eaters coming up from the classrooms took an unplanned turn down another hallway to reroute around the battle and continue on with their plan. They climbed the stairs until they approached the hall adjacent to where the portrait of the Fat Lady hung. Macnair, the head of the pack, peaked around the corner and saw no one, "Let's go," he ordered.

The group rounded the corner, two hallways standing between them and a clear shot to the portrait.

" _STUPIFY_!" Fred and George said together as they popped around another corner down the way.

Macnair fell to the ground, caught completely off guard, while the rest of the Death Eaters didn't hesitate in sending curses ahead. Fred and George high fived, diving in different directions out of the line of fire. From behind them, a larger group of teachers and Order members, lead by Harry, rushed around the corner, sending their own spells down the hallway. Draco tried to keep in front of Hermione, but she was persistent to step out and fight on her own.

Students around the castle were starting to flock down to their common rooms, the sounds of the battle rising up to meet their curious ears. Each respective common room was guarded by professors, one on the outside and one on the inside keeping students from leaving.

As the Gryffindors descended from their dormitories, they were met with no professors guarding their exit. Neville was the first to climb out, followed quickly by Dean and Seamus. Outside the portrait hole stood Mcgonagall, looking surprised to see the portrait swing open.

"In! Back in! All of you!"

"Professor, what's going on?" Neville asked. Behind him, Dean and Seamus were more students, who weren't able to get past them into the corridor.

"Where is Professor Sinistra?" McGonagall demanded, "Is she not inside?"

"No, Professor," Neville shook his head, "We've just heard all the noise."

McGonagall looked worried, but stern, "Get back inside! There is a battle going on out here and the last thing we need is students out of bed!"

A flash of red flew past McGonagall's ear and Dean and Seamus reversed back into the common room, not wanting to distract McGonagall further, "Sorry, Professor!"

"Longbottom, in you go," she said more urgently.

Neville looked torn but instead of climbing back in, he quickly jumped out, shut the portrait hole behind him and started running down the hall, "I'm sorry!" He yelled, "But I've got to join the fight!"

"Longbottom!" She called after him, "Oh for heaven's sake!" She cursed inwardly, running down the hall after him.

By the time she rounded the corner, Neville was already throwing curses towards a smaller Death Eater… a student? As she moved to join him, another face caught her eye.

"Professor Sinistra!" She rushed towards her, "Where have you been!"

She got closer, realizing something was wrong. Professor Sinistra's eyes were clouded over and… and her wand was pointed at Neville.

Without another thought, McGonagall shot a horde of spells at her, binding her against the wall. She looked around, Professor Sinistra wasn't the only Hogwarts professor fighting _against_ the Order. McGonagall rushed around, joining in the battle, picking out the professors with clouded eyes to bind to the walls. Keep them safe, but away from harming anyone. There was no doubt they were under the Imperius curse.

"Push them out!" It was Lupin's yell this time. It was time to move the Death Eaters outside the castle. They started pushing them back down the stairs, the Death Eaters outnumbered without the extra professors on their side.

"Fall back!" It was Snape.

"Severus?!" McGonagall rushed towards him, looking for clouded eyes, but met with his black, cold eyes instead. "Severus, why?!" shock was evident in her voice as the two stared at each other, no response coming from Snape.

He finally tore his eyes away, yelling louder this time, "FALL BACK," and running back towards the Entrance Hall to dodge the attack before McGonagall snapped back to reality and followed in pursuit.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Ah! We are getting so close to the end! Hope you enjoyed, please leave a review if you've got a minute, they make my day :)


	26. The Battle Part II

**Chapter 26:** The Battle Part II

o-o-o-o-o-o-o

While the battle raged through the castle, Dumbledore stood patiently around the corner from the Room of Requirement, watching as Voldemort approached the wall, walking deliberately past it three times, and entered through the door that appeared. Dumbledore waited a few moments before following him through, seeing Voldemort ahead, already starting to sift through items stashed in the room of hidden things.

"Hello again, Tom."

Voldemort wheeled around, eyes blazing.

"I see you've found your way back into the castle," Dumbledore walked towards him casually, "Might I ask how you did it? There seem to be quite a lot of Death Eaters in my school."

"Perhaps you should take better inventory of the passageways in and out of your school," Voldemort hissed.

"I think I have a decent inventory of most of them, but the castle is full of mysteries," Dumbledore gave him a small smile, "However it seems as though you came in from the dungeons which leads me to believe that you somehow found a way past the charms in the passageway from the Potions classroom, is that correct?"

Voldemort looked livid, "I've known how to break your charms for _years_ ," he spat, "I broke them as a school boy. You must really be losing your touch." He lifted his wand, throwing a curse at Dumbledore, who easily deflected it, still walking towards him.

"I'll have to find some new charms to really give you a challenge next time," he sighed, "Tonight, however, I will be content with you leaving my school unharmed."

"You will not make a fool of me, Dumbledore, I know what you have hidden here," Voldemort tried to take back the reins of the conversation.

"Do you, Tom?" Dumbledore goaded him on.

"Potter wouldn't even know what to do with a magical weapon," Voldemort jeered, "You think the boy is powerful enough to work the kind of weapon it would take to defeat me?!"

"Ah, how ever did you hear about this weapon, Tom?"

"Because unbeknownst to you, I've taken two of your students. I've had Death Eaters here in their place all year and they are far away from here. I tortured the truth out of Harry Potter's Mudblood friend. She'll die now I think, now that you've gotten in the way. Did we set off alarms coming into the castle? Did that Squib see us as we walked up from the dungeons?"

"No, Tom," Dumbledore responded calmly, "No, you didn't set off a single alarm! We just happened to learn your entire plan. You see the friends of those you captured noticed something was amiss and your imposters have let a little too much slip. Also, we've got our prisoners back so I don't think you'll be murdering anyone when you return home tonight. And as an added bonus, she lied to you about the weapon, I doubt there is any magical weapon that would be able to kill you as you are right now, if I had to guess."

Voldemort yelled in anger at the disastrous state of everything, " _CRUCIO!_ " He shouted at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore flicked his wand and a sheer bubble erupted from the tip, engulfing him in protection.

"Your men are outnumbered," Dumbledore told him as Voldemort continued to throw curse after curse at the bubble, each one bouncing off in different directions, "We've pushed them onto the grounds by now and there are Aurors waiting to take them to Azkaban. I think it's time you join them."

Voldemort seethed, throwing another powerful curse at Dumbledore. This time, the bubble shook and shattered. Without thinking twice, he bellowed " _Sanguinem,_ " and a crimson liquid shot from Voldemort's wand, whipping hard at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore reacted quickly with a protection charm, which collided with Voldemort's curse, bursting into flames that shot feet into the air.

"You will lose them all," Dumbledore warned again.

Voldemort breathed heavily, realizing the losing battle he was fighting. Even if he killed Dumbledore, he couldn't let all of his followers end up back in Azkaban. Not with Fudge out of office now. With one last hateful look, he flew through the air to the door and took chase to the fight outside.

Back in the Entrance Hall, the Order was highly overpowering the Death Eaters at least 2-1 as the battle began to move out the front door.

Luna had slipped out of the Hufflepuff common room and joined the fight at some point. She currently stood to the side, directing her Patronous to hop around to different battles to distract the Death Eaters and send protection to the Order where she could, a dazed but determined look on her face.

Lucius, who had jumped behind a gargoyle that lined the stairs out of the castle, watched as wizards piled out of the doors and onto the grounds. He saw a flash of blond hair and he pounced.

Draco had been going after Greyback, who had taken a swipe at Ginny, when his father knocked him off his feet and down the last few stairs.

They wrestled on the ground for a moment, before pushing themselves to their feet. In his peripherals he saw Ron sprinting out the door to go after Greyback, Ginny right on his heels; that girl had a strong head on her shoulders.

"How did you get back," Lucius growled.

"I escaped," He bit back, "Mother helped me. You should know better than to threaten her only son."

" _Incarcerous!"_ Lucius yelled.

" _Protego!_ " Draco countered.

"You have destroyed this family by being weak. You don't deserve to carry the Malfoy name," fire burned in Lucius' eyes.

"You're just angry because you finally see how pathetic you are. You're a follower. You'll never be a leader. And now, The Dark Lord will never give you another chance."

"CRUCIO!" Lucius yelled.

Draco fell to the ground, writhing in pain, but keeping his mouth shut.

"CRUUUCIO," he yelled louder this time, hatred dripping from his voice.

Draco couldn't keep it in anymore, he cried out, his father's anger was tangible in his attack.

"I will kill you for what you've done," Lucius enunciated each word, barely audibly, "You will pay for it all."

Hermione had just stunned a Death Eater and was looking around the grounds. The rain had turned to a light mist and the fog had come in heavy from over the forest. Through the fog she saw Draco on the ground, his father standing over him.

She ran towards them, hearing their words as she got closer.

"Avada Ke-"

"No!" She screamed, running towards him, " _Volanto_!" She flourished her wand, pushing all of her might into the spell.

It hit Lucius square in the face and he flew back ten yards.

" _Petrificus Totalus!_ " She said, standing over him now. He went stiff and she ran back to Draco.

"Draco? Draco are you okay?" Her heart was pounding in her chest.

"You just saved my life," he looked up at her, a grin on his lips.

"Well, you're welcome," she said, relieved that he was alright, "Let's get you back inside."

"No, we need to keep fighting," he stood up slowly, "I'm okay, really, we need to get back in there."

Hermione grinned back at him now, "Alright, Draco Malfoy the hero, let's get back in there!"

They rejoined the fight, looking around to see they had all but won, most Death Eaters tied in ropes on the ground.

Out through the doors, what looked like a puff of black smoke emerged, forming quickly into the body of Voldemort as he stepped onto the grass, seeing the carnage around him. Aurors were running in to grab tied up Death Eaters and levitating them back into the castle to bring to Azkaban.

"POTTER," Voldemort yelled, seeing the boy ahead of him.

"Master!" It was Bellatrix running up to him, her dark eyes were pleading, "Master we are gravely outnumbered, we have to get out of here."

He cast her aside, "POTTER, MARK MY WORDS, YOU WILL BE DESTROYED."

Knowing he was out of time, he flew back into the air again, grabbing what followers he could on his way and flying out into the Forbidden Forest. Bellatrix and Snape ran after him into the dark, crossing over the threshold of the Forest as well.

The night became quiet, filled only with the heaving breathing of the Order members and professors that lined the lawn.

"Hold the perimeter," Dumbledore instructed the Aurors that had joined them, "Walk the edge of the forbidden forest and put your protective spells around it. I don't anticipate they'll be coming back tonight, but we need to use caution. I'm going to place some particularly strong spells on the passageway under the Potions classroom. Oh, and Dawlish," he addressed one of the Aurors, "Can you please move the Death Eaters we've rounded up over to Azkaban at your earliest convenience? I expect the students will be forcing their way past their common rooms soon."

"Professor," Harry ran up to him.

"Yes, Harry?"

"What about the professors that were under the Imperius curse?"

"There's already a group of Aurors tending to them. They'll need to be treated in the hospital wing with some counter curses," Dumbledore looked at him sadly, "I'm afraid I didn't know the extent of how far they'd infiltrated the castle before we caught wind of it."

"Did you know...?" Harry wasn't sure how to finish his question respectfully, "Did you know Snape was one of them?"

Dumbledore was quiet for a moment, "Harry, Severus Snape was a conflicted man. I urge you to remember that things are not always as cut and dry as they seem. But I am not surprised that he has left with Voldemort tonight."

Harry tried to deconstruct Dumbledore's words, but he had too many other questions on his mind, "Was anyone hurt badly in the battle?"

He looked at Harry gravely, "I'm afraid to say that Professor Sprout was killed. She didn't realize that one of the other professors was under the Imperius curse and was trying to help them. She died a hero."

A lump caught in Harry's throat as he thought about the professor, he saw Neville sitting on the stairs looking distraught, Luna comforting him, her Patronous still out, sitting on the other side of him. Sprout had been a mentor to Neville, someone who gave him the opportunity to find his calling in the magical world. He thought about the Hufflepuff's in their common room who would soon hear of her passing. His heart hurt for them all.

"I must tend to the passageway sooner rather than later, Harry," Dumbledore cut into his thoughts, "You fought valiantly tonight, you all did."

He patted him on the shoulder, squeezing it briefly before he walked off back into the castle.

The group slowly made their way inside, a feeling of triumph, mixed with heavy hearts for the loss of a beloved professor. A few people were being tended to along the way for moderate injuries and curses, but no else else was critically hurt.

Luna and Neville stood to follow them. At the top of the stairs, Luna turned and sent sparks into the air, reciting a quick poem of mourning while making some very elaborate movements as Neville bowed his head and the others paused.

They watched her, not wanting to interrupt, until she was ready to retreat inside.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

Harry walked through the Entrance Hall into the Great Hall to escape the chaos currently going on during the clean up phase. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Draco and Blaise followed.

Harry sat down, head in his hands and Ginny sat next to him, rubbing his arm, "We did everything we could," she said softly.

"I should have battled him. I should have done it tonight when he didn't have his Death Eaters to protect him."

"Harry," it was Hermione's voice this time, "I think if Dumbledore thought he could be destroyed in battle, he would have done it himself, or had you join him. I think there must be a reason he hasn't chosen to duel with Voldemort and we just need to trust him for now."

Harry sighed, pulling his head up, "It's just another year and another loss," he said solemnly, thoughts of Sirius playing in his head.

"Well," Ginny smiled at him, "You've got to look on the bright side. Times are dark, we know that. BUT we've got Hermione back."

Harry gave her a half-smile, "I know you're right," he looked up at Hermione, "We are so happy you're home."

"Me too, Harry," she felt like she could cry, but held strong.

Harry stood up and walked over the Draco, who was standing a few feet back with his hands in his pockets. Harry held out his hand to Draco, who looked down, taken aback.

"Thank you," Harry said and Draco slowly pulled out a hand to shake his, "For fighting with us. Thank you for being there for Hermione, and thank you for getting her back here safely with the help of your mother."

Draco nodded, pulling his hand back, "Going to take a bit to get used to this truce," he said with a laugh, "But thank you… for accepting me."

Blaise clapped him on the back, "See, why couldn't we have done this six years ago!"

"What fun would have have been," Draco smirked and they all shared a laugh at how far they'd come.

"Let's get back out there and see if anyone needs help," Ron suggested.

As the group headed back to the Entrance Hall, Draco grabbed Hermione by the hand, "Can we talk quick, before we go back with everyone?"

"Of course," she stepped back with him.

"Hermione I…," he tried to find where to begin, "I don't know how I would have survived there without you."

"I'm sure you would have been just fine," she said, but let him continue.

"I mean mentally," he pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, "I was in a dark place when we were brought to the dungeon. You made me fight my way out and you showed me another way."

"You should take some credit for yourself, too," her eyes were soft, "You made your own decisions. I'm proud of you for letting down your guard and making choices for your own life. You didn't just stand up for yourself to Voldemort, you stood up for me, too while we were in there. You're stronger than I think you realize."

Draco had never met someone who believed in him like she did, "I think you're good for me, Hermione Granger."

"So you're saying you didn't just like me because we were stuck together?" She grinned.

"No," he rolled his eyes, "No I like you just fine now, too."

"And I believe you're also indebted to me for saving your life, as I recall," she reminded him coyly.

Draco laughed, "I am indeed," he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her waist, "Listen, Granger," she said smoothly, "What I'm trying to tell you here, is that after spending two months locked up with you, you've changed me. You've made me a better person, and one _I_ can be proud of. While we were locked in that dungeon, I fell in love with you."

Hermione felt her breath catch, trying to find her words and placed a hand on his chest, "I love you." Her eyes bore into his with passion. She meant it with all of her heart. She leaned up, catching his lips with hers and pressing her body against him.

He kissed her with desire. She was his and he would be hers. There may be a long war ahead or them, but tonight they fought together. No longer prisoners, no longer enemies, forever bonded.

O-o-o-o-o-o-o

 **A/N:** Thank you, thank you, THANK you for taking time out of your life to spend with me and my story. I started this years and years ago and am so incredibly proud of finally finishing it :) Please leave a review, I would love to hear your thoughts! Look out for another new story coming *soon*.


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